


The Traitor, The Blonde Idiot, and The Widowmaker

by Zire_7



Category: Naruto
Genre: Also GenjutsuMaster!Sakura, As per usual Naruto and Sasuke ignore their third team mate, Author is Salty AF about Haruno Sakura's wasted character potential, Author views Canon as well-meaning suggestions at best, BAMF Haruno Sakura, DO NOT FUCKING READ THE STORY!, Dai-nana-han | Team 7 (Naruto)-centric, Haruno Sakura-centric, I expound upon one of the few shining moments of glory, IF YOU DON'T FUCKING LIKE 'EM, Inner Sakura is a bloodline, Inner Sakura is not amused, M/M, Mednin!Sakura, Multi, Naruto also needs to pull his head out of his ass, Naruto is not okay, Naruto's anger is valid, Not your average soulmate fic, Other, Sakura deserves better, Sakura is a true ninja whom doesn't have time for grandstanding or bullshit, Sakura is not okay, Sakura needs hugs and chocolate, Sakura's parents get fleshed out because why the fuck not???, Sasuke is jealous AF, Sasuke is not okay, Sasuke owns up to being a douche canoe, SealingExpert!Sakura, Sensor!Sakura, Seriously fuck canon, Soulmate AU, They've all played, Traumatizing each other, a part in, and relationships, angsty af, as belonging to pre-shippuden Sakura, badassery and heroism, before Sasuke does it for him, read the fucking tags, that no has ever or will ever recognize, they will get better, things get worse before they get better, will tag characters as they appear
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-13
Updated: 2019-04-05
Packaged: 2019-04-22 06:35:47
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 57,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14302962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zire_7/pseuds/Zire_7
Summary: Soulmates are not love at first sight, no the bond needs time and profound interaction between both sides to form. To prevent many from manipulating their soulmate to love who they appear to be and not who they are, the bond doesn't form until one of the intended turns 21. At this age, the younger of the pair enters into the dreaming wherein they re-live and witness the profound interactions they've had with their soulmate; soulmates can only be three years apart in age. In rare instances there have been the formation of Triads, the three intended enter the dreaming when one member turns 21.





	1. Part of a Triad; The Forest Of Death

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my attempt at basically deconstructing the SakuSasuNaru OT3 pairing as well as to make Sakura's presence be, you know, an actual fucking thing in the earlier chapters of the Naruto and Sasuke saga.
> 
> No I will not be using honorifics exceptions made for '-sama' when addressing the Hokage. [Cause I'll do what I want.]  
> Any and all jutsu names will be in this format: **_Kage Bunshin_** ' ** _Silently performed jutsu like so_** ' There is going to be no addition of 'no jutsu' or 'technique' because it is annoying as fuck to type.
> 
> I will use a combination of Japanese and English jutsu names, it depends on what sounds better. For the Japanese jutsu names, if you don't have them memorized, they will be listed in the end notes. Invented jutsu and their intended effect will also be located there.

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or its characters. I own only the plots/ideas/situations I have placed the characters in.** _

* * *

The first thing he recognized of his surroundings was the gray bark on the trees. The second, and most alarming, thing was the oppressive weight of Orochimaru's killing intent; he knew damn well the snake was hiding in a dank hole very far away from Konoha. The third and final thing he noticed, he was translucent like a ghost. “Oi bastard.”

For a fleeting moment he was relieved to hear Naruto's voice, and when he turned to locate his idiot, all the color drained from his face; Naruto was also translucent. This could only mean one thing, they were part of a triad and their third has turned 21. It also meant there was only one possibility as to who their third was. He bolted in the direction of Orochimaru's killing intent and as he passed Naruto, he snagged an arm and dragged his idiot along behind him, ignoring his protests.

“Please no,” He chanted under his breath. “anyone,” He knew it was pointless, but he still held out hope until he burst through the trees and stopped dead. “but her.”

* * *

_“W-What am I supposed to?!” Her voice cracks as her bottom lip wobbles. She takes a deep breath, pushes back her tears, and focuses on her surroundings. Sasuke's body was radiating heat and his chakra was fluctuating wildly, fighting with a foreign chakra infecting his coils. She was going to have to cool him down and do something about that other chakra._

_Her attention shifted from Sasuke to Naruto, she was honestly surprised to see him still pinned in place; her throw was out of desperation and poorly aimed. Her eyes flicked back to Sasuke and then to Naruto. She needed to get her team out of the area fast or other teams might come to investigate._

_“I can't carry both of you at the same time,” Another wave of tears spilled over, but she refused to give into the well of despair. “and I can't leave one of you here.”_

_'Make a clone'_

_She shakes her head and carefully lays Sasuke down on the tree branch. She could at least get Naruto down while trying to come up with a plan to get them somewhere safe. “What good would that do?”_

* * *

“Whose Sakura talking with?”Naruto's question disrupted the memory and caused it to freeze.

“I don't know,” He says, at a complete loss to yet another mystery surrounding their teammate. He shakes his head and with frustration mounting,“maybe we should stay quite and we'll find out.”

“ _She's talking to me,_ ” They both jump at the sound of her voice. His mouth hangs open at the sight of her as she lands in front of them, she was solid black with a faint white outline, hands on her hips, and sporting a sweet grin. “ _I'm Inner Sakura._ ”

They gulp as she grows larger like she used the Akimichi clan's _**Multi-Size**_ jutsu and towers over them. “ _No I will not answer any questions, just shut up and pay attention to your third._ ”

Neither him or Naruto catch the quiet 'for once' Inner mutters, when they turn back to their third's memory. 

* * *

_'Trust me, please make a clone,' After laying Naruto beside Sasuke her hands moved through the familiar signs. 'hold the last hand sign and concentrate our chakra for a long as you can stand too.'_

_A bead of sweat slid down the middle of her forehead as her chakra built up, and up, and up until it was ready to burst. 'Now push it outward and spread it over your chakra network like a layer of skin tight clothing.'_

_More sweat trickled down her back as she followed Inner's instructions. A wave of exhaustion threatened to break her concentration, but the burning chill of her chakra as she pushed it along her tenketsu chased it away. 'You're ready.'_

_Sakura almost growled at Inner's sudden withdrawal before whispering softly, instinctively, “_ _ **Restraint Release: Chakra Clone**_ ”

_A gust of wind raised goosebumps along her arms and as she exhaled, her breath fogged in the air. There was a harsh clicking in her ears, a moment later she realized she was shivering; the clicking was her teeth._

_“Cycle your chakra through your body to ward off the chill.” She was too tired to scream, but her body jerked forward. Her foot slid along the bark, she would have tumbled over the edge if Inner hadn't grabbed her arm._

_“W-Why am I so c-cold? And w-what the hell i-is g-g-going on?!”_

_“My mentor wasn't clear on why the first separation was so chilling for my Restraint,” Inner shrugged as she bent down to toss Naruto over a shoulder. Once she'd gotten him settled, “and as for whats going on...I'm the Haruno bloodline. Come on, we should get our idiots out of here before that creepy ass snake traitor comes back.”_

_Forcibly swallowing back the thousands of questions whirling around her head, she once more followed Inner's instructions. The heat rolling off of Sasuke as she tied his wrists together and pulled them over her head was divine. Her hands shook when she pulled his legs up and across her waist. Her teeth were still chattering as she pressed her chin down on top of his bound wrists, to keep his dead weight from strangling her when she moved. With one final re-adjustment and a firmer grip on his legs, Sakura leapt across the fifteen foot gap and kept Naruto and Inner in sight as night fell upon the Forest of Death._

_They travel in silence for what feels like hours her neck is killing her, as despite her best efforts, she slipped a couple of times when Sasuke's chakra spiked sharply. The fluctuations threw off her concentration and she lost her grip on his arms and the tree; she wrenched a muscle in her back after throwing herself forward to avoid getting dragged to the forest's floor. The first few times she ignored it. When it kept happening she tried to get a feel for the other chakra's density, speed, and frequency. Trying to match her chakra to it and draw the other chakra out to use it for a jutsu or something._

_She nearly succeeded when Inner dropped out of sight. She didn't hesitate to follow after her. A sigh of relief gusted out of her when she landed beside Inner. Her eyes scanned the small clearing and landed on the massive tree root Inner was examining,“As soon as we get them settled under the root, we're trapping the ever loving fuck out of this place.”_

_“Put Naruto down and go get started on that,” She brushed past Inner as she moved under the root. “Sasuke's f-fever is getting worse. I need to f-figure out how to draw out the chakra corrupting his coils or whatever the hell chakra the b-bite gave him, will kill him.”_

_Only vaguely did she register Inner laying Naruto down and liberating him of his weapon pouch, she did the same for Sasuke before gesturing for their pouch too. With zero hesitation she detached it, paused briefly to free her storage scroll, and handed it over. Her focus was pulled away from her teammates upon hearing Inner clear her throat._

_Inner spoke as soon as she looked up. “I'm not like Naru's shadow clones or other standard clones. I'm...a chakra construct made almost entirely from yin chakra, but I am you and you're me, I can perform any jutsu you can without dispelling so long as the chakra that created me doesn't run out. Don't worry, my chakra pool and your reserves are separate so you won't feel any drain from my actions.”_

_“How much chakra did you con me into giving to you?” She sucked in a breath as a wave of guilt crashed over her when Inner flinched back. “Sorry, I- its not like...,” She clamped her mouth shut over the rising tide of confusion, terror, and despair threatening to spill out in a jumbled mess, they didn't have time for her to fall to pieces. “you aren't my enemy even t-though you've been a pain in the ass my entire life.”_

_“Two thirds, I'm sorry for taking advantage. We're in a bad way here, Saku. You are in no condition to protect our idiots on your own nor remotely ready for this long of a separation, but its what we have to do. After I set the traps, I'll come give you a run down of them and hide out along the outer perimeter and lure away any teams that get too close.” With that she watched Inner get swallowed up by the shadows before once more focusing on her teammates._

* * *

His stomach is churning with shame as he watched memory Sakura unseal a medical kit, albeit a standard genin first-aid kit, but a kit nonetheless; he'd had no idea she had brought it with her when they took the Chūnin exams. It was difficult to watch his teammate, the decisive, calm, collected, and prodigious medic-nin Sakura became, fumble with the supplies and tear up as she tried to assess his and Naruto's wounds.

To him, she looked so small and pale, her hands were trembling with the tell-tell signs of borderline chakra exhaustion. The churning in his stomach ceased as icy dread replaced it when he saw his younger self start convulsing, toxic purple chakra bubbling up from the curse seal. His convulsions devolved into thrashing and he saw her throw herself on him.

Sasuke forced himself to watch the first time he raised a hand to his soulmate, the punch was loud as it hit her jaw, his own jaw ached in sympathy. He tried to move forward, to place a hand on her shoulder, to tell her to leave him at the curse seal's mercy. His hand stops just shy of touching memory Sakura as silent tears spill down her face. She grunts with the effort to keep him still.

He desperately tries to block her hand from touching the purple chakra when she places her left hand on his neck and her right hand forms a seal. _“I don't know if this will work, but if I don't do something, it will kill you. Hang on just a little longer Sasuke.”_

A moment later his jaw hits the floor as she molds the excess chakra and creates several dozen academy bunshin. The thrashing lessens as she creates more and more bunshin until it stops altogether. His eyes scan her form looking for any signs of damage or injury. Bile rises in his throat upon catching a glimpse of the chakra burns spiraling up her left arm; they resemble the exact pattern of the curse mark's first stage.

He tastes salt on his lip and with stilted movements, his finger tips brush away his tears. They refuse to stop when it takes his other soulmate ten minutes longer than it should to bandage her left arm. Her left arm is shaking as her right hand tries to spread a bright red paste over the chakra burns. It feels like Naruto's _**Rasengan**_ is eating away at his stomach with every little hitch, swallowed whimper, and breathless gasp of pain he ears from her.

“Sasu, that's how she got those s-scars.” Naruto's voice breaks on the last word. His heart lurches, more tears flow with each beat thudding painfully into his sternum. With the same stilted movements and uncoordinated limbs, he reaches for Naruto and pulls him closer. Golden spikes tickle the left side of his jaw as Naruto's arms wend around his waist. The two of them hold each other as they witness their soulmate's battle against the curse seal's chakra; wishing they could hold memory Sakura too.

* * *

_Her bandaged left arm is shaking as she lay the freshly soaked compress to Naruto's forehead, it was his turn for it. Sakura worried her bottom lip as she pushed her senses to Sasuke's chakra coils. She nearly fell over with relief when she couldn't sense any fluctuations. 'Seems as though that bite has finally calmed.'_

_'For now anyway.'_

_Before she can acknowledge Inner's point, a faint scurrying reaches her ears. Her eyes snap up, scanning for the source of the sound as her hand palms a kunai. Everything is silent for a few moments. At the edge of her vision she catches a flash of brown and white, the kunai flies from her hand with zero hesitation. There's a squeak from the brown squirrel as it flees the clearing._

_'Is the sun rising yet?' The wave of exhaustion creeps up as she waits for a response from Inner. She felt inordinately proud of herself when she made contact with Inner after calming the influx of the toxic chakra as it ravaged Sasuke's coils._

_Apparently her family's bloodline developed differently for each member and depending on outside chakra impressions they encountered during their childhood...there was no telling what her **Restraint Release** would be capable of; with a chakra impression from the kyuubi's attack twelve years ago helping to form Inner. In addition, Inner's mentor had primarily been a slowly degrading chakra impression from some ancestor of theirs and left her with a basic understanding of what her and her restraint could do when they were in sync. Which was absolutely no help whatsoever and left them both floundering in uncharted territory. _

_So far, from what they have experienced first hand, they could communicate with each other in real time, and if Sakura channeled a tiny bit of yin chakra she could even see through Inner's eyes. Though the drawbacks, a persistent icy chill, releasing Inner took almost all of her chakra, and any yin chakra she used was transferred immediately to Inner. It made her wary of using her bloodline; at least until she had a better understanding of it._

_Her vision was darkening as her eyes slid closed, she gave herself a shake and slapped her cheek with a hand, but it was lack luster at best. Sakura's body slumped over Naruto and Sasuke, a moment later pale jade snapped open as what felt like a bucket of lava was poured over her head. Her posture straightened as the heat spread from the top of her head to her toes and then back up, a ripple of agony zinging up her spine. She curled into a ball as she fought to keep the heat from melting her brain._

_'Fucking Ame cowards-' Inner took a deep breath and shot Sakura a smug grin, '-joke's on them though, I liberated their heaven scroll and hid it when they weren't looking.'_

_'What-'_

_“An all-nighter, huh?” Between one blink and the next, she was out from under the root and staring down the three genin from Oto with a kunai in both hands._

_“Oh,” His voice wasn't muffled, despite three quarters of his face covered in bandages, as he stood from his crouch. “there is no need to get involved Candyfloss.”_

_The two other genin snort, before the other boy says, “Good one, Dosu. Now wake up Sasuke. We want to fight him.”_

_“Fuck off,” Her voice was hard and her chakra exploded outward. “and tell the snake traitor he'll never get his hands on Sasuke.”_

_Their kunoichi paled, her teammates appeared unaffected as the boy with spiky black hair grinned, sharp and vicious. “Tch, how dare you insult Orochimaru-sama. I'll kill you first and then your precious teammates...” His eyes glinted with malicious glee. “Or maybe I'll save you for last and make you watch.”_

_“Wait, Zaku.”_

_Zaku shot a quizzical look Dosu's way, but remained seated on the tree branch as he watched Dosu step forward. Coming to a stop a few feet from the lone kunai, he knelt to inspect the grass. “Grass doesn't grow in this clearing, there's freshly turned dirt, and a dirt smeared boulder which suggests,” With a dramatic flourish of a metal clad arm, he reveals a trip wire. “a pointless booby trap.”_

_“This girl's useless and weak,” The kunoichi drawls visibly relaxing and brushing off her earlier reaction to the weakling. Zaku nods in agreement, glee still present in his eyes._

_“Kill her.”_

_As one they leap into the air toward her. Her lips twitch as she slashes the kunai in her left hand, severing the wire running along the tree's bark. The airborne Dosu, being the closest, is the one who sees the flash of metal and hears the ominous crackling of branches. “A trap above?!”_  

* * *

Naruto's grip on him turns bruising, his grip is just as punishing. He had no idea the extent of what Inner Sakura and Sakura had done to keep them alive. It had been quite a shock when Inner had started a running commentary whenever her and Sakura had a conversation; he'd just assumed she had help attaining their heaven scroll. Sasuke was drowning in a bottomless abyss of guilt, shame, and utter self-loathing at what he's put their third through. He wasn't sure he could survive the memories to come, he wasn't sure Naruto wouldn't kill him before the end.

* * *

_They're on a collision course with a giant log, but from the shifting wind current and the whistling, he could tell it was hollow. He brought his hand up and with a trickle of chakra to his arm contraption, shattered it into chunks._

_“Still not good enough, Candyfloss.” He said, a touch of annoyance coloring his words. His eye went wide as he felt a deluge of liquid splatter across his body. From the grumbling of the other two, they'd been hit too._

_“What was the point of-” Zaku's shout was cut off as a shock wave of flames knocked them back._

_His back thudded painfully into the tree they'd been using to spy on Sasuke's teammate all night. A few moments later he slid down the trunk and grunted upon impact with the ground. The heat licking at his face spurned him into action as he flopped face first into the dirt and rolled until the flames were all out._

_As soon as he was no longer on fire, he jumped up and ran to help Kin, whose entire body was shrouded in flame. He was forced to dodge a barrage of kunai, and another of shuriken, before reaching her. He breathed a little easier upon seeing the loose articles of clothes. It seems he'd underestimated his teammate._

_“ **Leaf Whirlwind**!”_ _All the breath in his lungs whooshed out of him as a kick connects with his face. He's sent flying back again, but this time he skids along the ground and hits the base of a tree so hard it shakes._

_“Who the fuck are you?!” He snarls at the green freak standing protectively in front of Candyfloss._

_“Rock Lee,” He gently scoops a squirrel off his shoulder and shoos it away before glancing behind him to check on Candyfloss. “the green beast of Konoha.”_

_“Why are you here?” She's too tired to worry about how rude she must sound. There's a beat of silence as the Oto-nin regroup. Sakura's grin is wide and borderline vicious upon seeing singed clothes, blistering red skin, and the absence of suitable attire for one of the genin._

_“I promised to protect you,” He gives her a thumbs up. “but we are also shinobi of Konoha, and we don't abandon our comrades.”_

_“Thank you, I don't have much chakra left, but the area is trapped. I'll provide support when I can.” He gives her another thumbs up before becoming a green and white blur._

_She's in awe of Lee's speed and strength as he sends Dosu flying with a kick and vanishes, only to reappear behind Dosu. The loose bandages cocoon Dosu in seconds before Lee grips either side of the cocoon and spins. “ **Primary Lotus** ” _

_A cloud of dust is kicked up as they hit the ground, she shields her eyes with a hand and squints, Lee lands a few feet to her left. Dosu's legs stick straight up from the impact site. She notes how Zaku's is crouched low, hands wrist deep in the ground, and her stomach drops. Sakura's knuckles are white as they grip her kunai, none of the Oto nin are in range of her traps. Her unease is amplified when Dosu twitches before pulling free from the dirt. “Your technique is terrifying and quite effective, despite my soft landing...” Dosu's shakes off the excess dirt. He's already closed half the distance between him and Lee. “My turn.”_

_She watches in slow motion as Lee collapses. Heart in her throat and hands slick with sweat she aims for the tripwire. Another kunai knocks hers off course. Her gaze snaps to Lee, she looses a relieved breath when he doges, but her relief is short lived when he pitches forward and pukes. Sakura tunes out Dosu's patronizing explanation, she'd figured out his trick during the first stage, as she tried think of a way to use her remaining traps or to get the Oto nin in position._

_'Inner, give me something, anything, to help Lee.' Unfortunately, Dosu is done playing with Lee and is rushing at her like a lighting bolt. 'You don't have enough chakra to create another clone for me, nor are you completely recovered from the first separation...get them into position with your plan. I'll wait for an opportunity to strike.' All she could do is brace for the collision. **Restraint Release** '_

_“ **Leaf Whirlwi** -” Dosu bats Lee's leg aside and thrusts his arm forward. Its intercepted by bandaged hands, her ears ring as chorus of pops fill the air. Lee is face down, screaming into the dirt and clutching his right ear, blood leaks from between his fingers; staining the bandages on his hands red. _

_“Now,” She lets her kunai fall to the ground and tenses. Dosu's arm is raised high, the metal glinting with sunlight, “I'll gut a green beast.”_

_“Over my dead body, asshole.” The cool metal of her shuriken and kunai sooth her overheated skin. Her right wrist snaps forward._

_Shuriken bounce off the metal contraption on his arm. “Oh geez.”_

_She gathers the last dregs of her chakra into her arm as she steps into her throw, she concentrates on the holes in the metal contraption and releases her kunai.' **Inner Control: chakra Corkscrew** ' All, but one of her kunai are deflected by a wave of air courtesy of Zaku. She shields her face with her arms as best as she can, two of her kunai nick her left arm and the third slices through her dress and the mesh lining, blood slides down her side._

_There's a faint crack as her chakra laden kunai strikes home. Dosu's arm contraption fissures with arcs of solid black and white sparks. He flails his arm and holds it as far away from his body as he can. Half of his arm falls to the ground in a fountain of blood and metal fragments as her kunai finishes drilling through it. His scream slams into her ear drums like a hammer on a nail. With shaking fingers, his right hand holds what remains of his left arm. Each breath is ragged and he gasps. “Zaku, Kin, stop-”_

_Her vision goes white when there's a sharp tug on her hair. She swallows her scream as her knees buckle and the grip on her hair tightens. The person holding her twists their hand, tears pool in her eyes as a few of her hairs are ripped from her skin._

_“You little bitch, you'll pay for what you did to Dosu.” Another tug, far more vicious than the other two, and Sakura doesn't feel it. As the toxic chakra from Sasuke's bite hangs in the air. Involuntarily her head jerks to Sasuke and Naruto._

_“Your hair's way prettier than mine, I bet you spent more time playing dress up than training, you make me sick.” She grits her teeth and forces her fingers deeper into the ground._

_“Zaku go kill Sasuke and then her other teammate. Let's,” Kin's foot stamps hard on her right hand, she hisses through her teeth, but doesn't make any other sound. “teach this vile worm a lesson.”_

_“Hey, hey, don't be s-stupid-” Dosu sways before toppling over, blood gushing steadily from the mangled stump of his left arm._

_As Kin and Zaku focus on their injured teammate, she uses the distraction to draw a kunai with her left hand and uses it to slash through her hair. The moment she's free, she stabs Kin's foot, anchoring her in place, tosses a hand full of dirt in her face, and lunges for the long forgotten kunai. When her hand wraps around the hilt, she turns her lunge into a roll and as she rises from her crouch, slashes through the exposed wire of her 'failed' booby trap. An even bigger plume of dust, than Lee's lotus, erupts as a massive boulder hits the ground where Kin was standing, hands rubbing her eyes._

_Silence descended on the clearing for a moment before she is dodging Zaku's wild swings and his **Zankuuha**. Her mind races for a viable strategy as her last big trap was used on Kin. ' **Kawarimi** ' She shakes off the disorientation as she appears on Zaku's left, the edges of her vision blacken, she knows she can't use any more jutsu. The toxic chakra thickens in the air, a suffocating blanket of malevolence and she reaches for it. 'Inner, get ready.' _

_Her kunai whistle through the air toward Zaku, his sneer is ugly and his eyes burn with rage. “That jutsu you hit Dosu's arm with was probably a fluke and unless you have any more traps, you are so dead. **Zankuuha**.” _

_' **Kawarimi** ' Her left arm is being eaten by acid as wind rushes past her as she falls. Those burning eyes lock with hers as she see's Zaku reach for his own kunai and flings them at her. She brings her hands up to form the seal for the last time. “Is cowardly and weak jutsu, all you know? It's useless.”_

_She waits for him to look away, keeps her arms up to block the kunai, before drawing on the toxic chakra again and speeds through the signs Inner's calling out, on the last sign, Inner invokes. ' **Inner Control: Distortion** '_

_Hot splashes of liquid on his face drag his attention to the sky. 'She stayed this time...' His face pales as his pants grow wet, and the warm liquid runs down his thighs. The kunai in his hands slip from limp fingers as the scent of urine tickles his nose._

_The sun bathes glittering pink and black wings with its light as they flare out. Razor sharp teeth pull back in a snarl, and a stream of black kunai pour from its wide open maw. Two emerald eyes flash with cunning as its claws extend toward him. The dragon's roar rattles his bones and his throat is raw from screaming as his insides spill out, hot and cold sensations fighting a war in his brain, then everything stops._

_Her legs threaten to drop her on top of Zaku's disemboweled body, but she stumbles two steps away and vomits up everything she's ever eaten. She takes another few steps from her bile, wiping a hand over her mouth, and collapses in a heap. Sakura's limbs are heavy with fatigue and are trembling, but she crawls back over to Naruto and Sasuke; the bite is still spewing toxic chakra._

_“Take it easy there.” She flinches away from the voice, an involuntary whimper escapes her. She curls into a ball, trying to make herself as small as possible._

_“Whoa kid, its...” The voice trails off and she hunkers down even more, knowing beyond a doubt they've spotted the bodies. She hears a distant shout, a muffled curse, and shifts away from the chakra signature she feels coming closer to her._

_“Sa,”She freezes at the sound of her voice, its been a long time since she's heard it without a tinge of malice. “ku,” Her muscles relax as a hand cards gently through her hair. “ra. Its okay, I know it isn't really okay, but right now and especially in this moment; you are okay. And that is the only thing that matters.”_

_“Ino.” It is a breathless exhalation and a sob as she throws herself at her friend, trusting Ino to catch her, to hold her._

* * *

His eyes closed, but it did nothing to block out the sound of his soulmate breaking apart after her first kills, he had always wandered about them and tried to coerce the story out of Sakura with all the means at his disposal, including genjutsu. He's never felt so dirty in his entire life, sure he was an all around bastard and grade A asshole who made shitty decisions, but knowing she'd killed the Oto team to protect him and Naruto...

Sasuke let go of his idiot and glared down his protests as he sat watching the last few moments of the memory as Anko, team 10, and team Gai helped cart team 7 to the tower; stopping briefly to collect the Heaven scroll, Inner Sakura procured from the Ame team.

“Naruto,” He said, trying to find the courage to voice some of his deepest, darkest, and most haunting regrets. “I want to w-”

“ _-Ah, ah, ah_.” Inner Sakura was in his face, wagging her finger back and forth, “ _There are rules of conduct when Dreaming your soulmate's memories, even more so for triads, and you are not exempt, Mr. High and Mighty Uchiha._ ”

“What kind of rules?” Naruto's voice was unusually subdued and soft. Sasuke was worried for his idiot's well-being and how this would affect his friendship with Sakura, not to mention any potential relationship going forward. While Naruto understood that killing was unavoidable in their profession, the goofy ball of sunshine had a strong distaste for it and until recently, had believed Sakura to be free of such a heavy burden.

“ _The two of you will be incapable of voicing any memories or warnings, pertaining to either or both of you before the bonding memories have run their course._ ” When two quizzical looks were sent her way, she elaborated. “ _In other words, if Sasuke has had a profound interaction with Sakura and you, Naruto, were not present for it; Sasuke can't tell you anything about it before the both of you view it and vice versa_.”

He refused to believe it, refused to accept it, and opened his mouth to deliver a warning, “Naruto, I've-”

His mouth was moving, but there was no sound. He activated his sharingan to craft a genjutsu to trap Naruto in, but a sharp spike of pain behind his eyes forced him to cut off the chakra flow. When he tried using field signs, his body froze, and he suspected any writing materials, if they'd had any, would catch fire. With a grunt he lashed out at the nearest tree and squawked when his fist passed through the tree. As he fell face first to the ground, a brisk breeze ruffled his hair and his blood ran cold. _No, not this night. Sage's s_ _hakujō please not this night._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jutsu list  
> Zankuuha: air slicing blast  
> Kawarimi: Substitution  
> Restraint Release; this allows the Inner unfettered access to their Restraint's chakra reserves.  
> Inner Control: Chakra Infusion [Allows the Inner to imbue any physical object, usually a weapon, with yin chakra, the chakra is structured into a specific shape the Inner envisions when imbuing the chakra.]  
> Inner Control: Distortion [The Inner sharpens their Restraint's killing intent and creates an image to project over their Restraint to instill fear in their enemies.]
> 
> [ ** _Remember no one is forcing you to read the end notes, proceed at your own risk..._** ]
> 
> So there is a disturbing lack of SakuSasuNaru soulmate AUs that actually do a decent job of exploring Sakura's side of things from before the time skip, during, and after it. (With exception of 'It had to be enough.' by Skywarrior66. <\--Its great, but not quite what I'm looking for.)
> 
> As well as SakuSasu that...completely ignore or don't even touch the biggest issue I have with the ship. [ ** _Its entirely possible I haven't come across them yet, but I can't bring myself to go out of my way to search for them in the SasuSaku tags_** ] That issue...is the fact that he's a traumatized human whose received little to no counseling or therapy with un-healthy coping mechanisms, or you know...nonewhatso-fucking-ever and who uses the excuse of his slaughtered clan to be a giant asshole to every one; especially to Sakura. I acknowledge his life was a series of tragedies one after another, like falling dominoes of tragedies, or ripples in a pond, whichever metaphor you like better, but its just an excuse by the end of canon; an excuse I'm fucking tired of.
> 
> Look, I don't want a fight or a horde of Sasuke fans/stans yelling at me for MY OPINIONS, but what he does to Sakura and Naruto is not fucking okay. Naruto can weather hurricane Sasuke with aplomb 9 times out of ten, Sakura not so much...before shippuden she is a caricature of your typical boy crazy pre-teen girl, after the time skip she isn't to an extent, but all she's ever tried to do is reach out to the sad and lonely little boy she sees in Sasuke; like a dog with a bone. [ ** _She could have done it with more tact and been less hell-bent on being in a relationship, but she tried to help him in her own way._** ]
> 
> It hurts to see this character with so much affection to give get shot down. Every. Fucking. Time. [I'll touch on her attitude toward Naruto in the fic, so don't start calling me a hypocrite or calling out the bias I'm showing to Sakura] Honestly if you're still reading, I think by the time Sakura and Sasuke get together, Sakura would be of the mindset 'once bitten, twice shy' when it comes to relationships. Its highly unrealistic of any self-respecting human being whose gotten their heartbroken over and over and over again by the same person, to agree to be in a relationship with them. [ ** _Unfortunately Sakura isn't allowed to be a self-respecting human being for no good reason._** ]
> 
> SasuSaku don't make any fucking sense and clearly, from the Boruto manga, Sasuke is still a douche bag to Sakura. That scene when Sakura and Sarada are seeing Sasuke off at the gates. She looked like a puppy begging for a pat or scratch, for any scrap of affection from Sasuke. He brushes her off, and I couldn't say I was surprised when he did. [ ** _Makes me wonder if he only did the deed and brought Sarada into the world out of obligation rather than love..._** ]


	2. Orochimaru's Pet; Not Ours

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sasuke's eyes are forcibly opened to how much of an asshole he is, Naruto's rage is ball of lava and his foolishly optimistic attitude rears its ugly head, and Inner Sakura is along for the ride.

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or its characters. I own only the plots/situations/ideas that I have placed the characters in.**  
_

* * *

_“What are you doing out here?” He says flatly as he walks closer and closer to her._

_“I couldn't sleep,” Her eyes skewer him where he stands, a shiver travels down his spine when he meets her gaze. “so I went for a run around the outer wall. This road leads to the gates.”_

_“Hn, your parents are probably worried sick for you.” His shoulder knocks into hers as he starts walking toward the gates. There was no need to justify himself to a weakling like her. “You'd better run along home, or they'll yell at you for being so irresponsible and ground you for several months.”_

_'Orochimaru's invasion took them away from us, you fucking bastard. Of course, as usual, Kaka-sensei doesn't bother doing the one thing I asked of him.' She commends herself on channeling her outward reaction to his statement, inward as Inner was always better at expressing their emotions when she couldn't bring herself to; never in her life has she been grateful for Inner before now. Though it didn't nothing to stop her silent tears, as he throws her words back at her. Another reminder of what an insensitive whiny little waste of space she used to be._

_Now she'd give anything, do anything, for one more disappointed lecture from her parents. To hear their voices, to listen to her dad's embellished stories and antics he got up to with his **Restraint Release** on missions in his youth, she suspected he had been in ANBU after hearing them. To spend a day lounging in the back garden with her mom going over the poisons her former clan was famous for, and learning the proper way to build up an immunity to her own poison; her mom promised to help her to do that after she made chūnin. ' **Restraint Release: Chakra Clone** '_

_She keeps a tight grip on the mass of yin chakra, she's using nearly all of her chakra again, and holds Inner in place, like they've practiced with Inner Kizashi. They would only have one chance to trick him, to give the retrieval team an advantage over Sasuke; to give Naruto back up._

_“Do I still annoy the hell out of you?” Her voice isn't louder than a whisper, but she see's his movement still. The silence stretches on and on, broken only by the rustling leaves. Its answer enough for her. “I'm honestly surprised you even remember that.”_

_“When my sharingan activated, a lot of things I'd forgotten came back in a rush when we returned from Wave. Mostly it was insignificant things better left forgotten.”_

_“I see.” She drags her fingers over her cheeks to wipe away her tears. With her face free of her grief, she takes a few steps forward and draws level with him.“It must be a huge burden to have memories of such useless things like me, Naruto, Kakashi-sensei, and yourself doing thousands of Sage awful D-ranks. The struggles we've had trying to see Kakashi-sensei's face, getting him to show up to training on time, and to actually bother teaching us anything of use outside of a life-threatening situation.”_

_Her arm loops through his, she doesn't let him tear himself away as the Haruno **Chakra Seal Transfer** jutsu writes her fledgling tracking seal on his shirt's sleeve. When she feels his chakra buzzing to the surface, she speaks, voice flat. “I am sorry you've been so unhappy amongst us. The least I can do is walk you to the gates myself, the gate guards are used to my night runs and will believe me when I say you've decided to help me improve my stamina.” _

_She isn't surprised he knows **shunshin** nor is she surprised he uses it to escape her. The puff of air on the back of her neck raises goosebumps along the skin there. “I'm an avenger, a path I must walk alone and yeah, you're still annoying as hell.” _

* * *

As memory Sasuke's hand lights up, crackling with lighting chakra, and strikes the back of Sakura's neck, agony explodes in his left cheek. He does nothing to stop himself from crashing to the ground from the force of Naruto's punch. “As soon as this is done, I'm going to enjoy watching her kick the ever-loving fuck out of you. And whatever is left, I'll let Kurama devour, and whatever last little speck is left after he's through with you, I'll turn black and blue.”

He doesn't dare breath a sigh of relief or move an inch, why was he even worried that Naruto would be wary around Sakura for killing to protect them from the Oto team. Sasuke doesn't even attempt to defend himself by saying it was just to knock her out long enough to give him a head start. He let's Naruto tackle him when his younger self leaves her lying there in the road. To his shock, and Naruto's, Inner Sakura kick's the idiot off of him. “ _Pot meet Kettle, Naru._ ” 

* * *

_“Wait.” Five heads turn in her direction, she see's the minute widening of their eyes when they land on her, her mom's dark gray chūnin vest snug over her chest; its the first time she's worn it since her promotion. Beneath the vest is a skin tight black long sleeved turtleneck and black cargo shorts. Her dad's black finger-less gloves, his arm and shin guards from his ANBU days, and his steel toed black boots complete her attire._

_She stands tall under Shikamaru's calculating gaze, she dares him with her eyes to say she can't join them. “I'm sorry, I can't take you on this mission. You already failed to convince Sasuke. We have to use force to make him understand.”_

_“Sakura, you talked with Sasuke?” Her staring contest with Shikamaru is interrupted by her orange idiot's questions.“What'd he say?! Why did he leave?!”_

_Its like the world turns into a vacuum ripping the air from her lungs as Naruto's frantic distress washes over her. Despite her iron control, tears well in her eyes and roll down her face, Horns of the Sage she is tired of crying over her obsessed idiots. She is surprised at the evenness to her words, “More like talked at him, he's always been more verbal around you anyways”_

_The snort she hears from Naruto eases the tension in her muscles, but her heart constricts at what he says next. “You stay here and wait for us to come back, okay?” Her chest is filled with lead and she has resorted to shallow breaths as she nods her answer. “I promise I'll get him back.”_

_'Its like they don't even see me, they're too focused on each other, do I mean nothing to either of them?' She tears her eyes away from them as they disappear into the trees, Inner's too far away to answer her. Sakura waits for their signatures to reach the edge of her sensing range before heading for her first marker._  

* * *

**_Inner Sakura  
_ **

* * *

 " _Fucking asshole,” She gently sets her Restraint on the bench before grabbing the pack of supplies behind it. “if I thought I could take his entourage, I'd drag him back myself.”_

_Inner looks back to the bench, they'd been warned against a separation of this magnitude by their dad's Inner. She shakes her head and follows after Sasuke. When she reaches the gates, she steps around the downed guards and shouts apologies at them in her mind. She can't afford to waste any of her chakra pool on alerting the patrolling ANBU, she'll need to conserve every last drop or all of this will be for nothing._

_She is flabbergasted at how very little time it takes to catch up to Sasuke and his escort, it was pure arrogance on their part. Either way, she wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth and placed the first of her Restraint's markers. The markers were a tag version of the tracking seal on Sasuke's shirt; her Restraint crafted the makers making it less chakra intensive for her to use. The seal, and markers, were designed to transmit the current location of the seal onto a map with the master seal to allow for long distance tracking; not everyone was a long range sensor nin, had ninken, or kikaichū to track targets with._

_Over the long hours she trails behind the Oto team, her Restraint had growled upon feeling the familiar toxic chakra in their coils, none of them even suspect they're being followed. She very carefully did not acknowledge, note, or muse sarcastically about their arrogance; there was no need to jinx it._

_She was resting at the base of a tree, waiting for the Oto nin to keep moving when she felt Sasuke's chakra vanish under a cloud of the Oto team's. Her hands fumbled with the map to check that her Restraint's seal was still active. In her haste to unravel the map, it knocked against the tree. A moment later and two jōnin dropped into the clearing, muscles tensed and kunai drawn._

_There was a senbon hanging from the taller one's mouth, dark brown hair framing his face, his partner had a swath of deep scars over the upper left half of his face; he seemed familiar to her. It was scarface who spoke, “You're...Ki-”_

_“-what's a genin doing out here without her team.” Raidō glared at him to shut up, keeping his attention on his friend's kid._

_“Genma, she's a chūnin.”_

_“My Restraint's a chūnin.”_

_She could see the confusion in Genma's eyes and the slight panic in Raidō eyes as he kept glancing at his partner. They didn't have time for this. “Look, Genma was it?” Genma rolled the senbon in his mouth to the other side as he inclined his head, maintaining eye contact. “I'm a yin chakra construct or a chakra clone, with the same capabilities of my Restraint and in conjunction with our prodigious chakra control, I can use a fuck ton more chakra and jutsu than any clone jutsu out there. Right now I'm following Uchiha Sasuke to drag his ass back to Konoha. Him and the Oto nin,” She pauses and finally unrolls the map, finds the tag's location, “are three kilometers to the north west of us.”_

_“What tracking method are you using?” Genma asks as some of the tension bleeds out of his shoulders._

_“My Restraint has been studying fūinjutsu and has created a tracking seal capable of tracking those tagged with it over long distances. When Sasuke was leaving the village, my Restraint confronted him and placed the seal.” Inner rolls the map back up and stuffs it into her pack._

_“How long have you been separated?” Raidō ignores the glance from Genma as he moves closer to his friend's daughter's Inner. “Do you need an infusion of yin chakra?”_

_“Rai,” He grits his teeth at Genma's tone, it was the same one he had used when Kizashi explained his clan's bloodline. “you don't seriously believe her? She's a scared genin chasing after her crush, whose gone rogue and for all we know she could be delaying us for-.”_

_“-her dad was the two headed skink.” Raidō cuts him off with venom dripping from every word. He curses Orochimaru for the thousandth time. He'd been too swamped with missions to visit her; he was her god-father and is planning to take her in._

_“Inner Kizashi is the only reason your ass has stayed so pretty. So shut your fucking mouth or I'll shut it for you. Now,” Coal black eyes pin her in place, promising hell, if she doesn't listen to what he says, “how long have you been separated and do you need an infusion?”_

_“0100 hours, our limit is thirteen. No, my Restraint is awake and is providing yin chakra as needed.”_

_“Good. Genma's squad leader so he'll take point, I'll take his left and you are on the right.” Raidō said leaving no room for argument. Genma leveled his friend with a flat stare before holstering his kunai, she resisted the urge to comment on the slight shake to his hand._

_“As soon as this mess is done, I want a full explanation about how Kiz got off hiding a kekkei genkai from his teammates and the Yondiame.” With eyes the size of saucers, Inner trailed after the two jōnin, dazed and dreading breaking this news to her Restraint; apparently their dad had been a member of the Yondiame's guard platoon._

_“I swear by the Sage's Rinnegan if you breath a word about it to anyone without Inner Sakura or Sakura's explicit approval, I'll hold you down so she can tear you limb from limb.” He glances over his shoulder at her. “Not that she'll need the help, in the near future.”_

_Two short minutes later, she was perched in a tree above Genma and Raidō as they stood staring down the Oto-nin. The skin along her left arm, her Restraint's chakra burn scars, itched something fierce. The same toxic chakra of the curse mark settled like a cloud over the clearing._

_Her lips curled back in a snarl upon seeing the black lines spreading across the Oto-nin. A harsh ping echoed through the clearing, drawing her attention away from the curse marks and back to Genma and Raidō. The ping was Genma's senbon hitting a kunai. That was the last she saw of the ensuing fight as blurs of color clashed together, a shower of sparks and the screech of metal when their weapons met._

* * *

_'Change of plans,' The tang of blood permeated the air, weapons littered the area between patches of scorched grass and cracked ground, and the silent forms of Genma and Raidō to either side of her. Her chest was tight and each breath sat heavy in her lungs, she couldn't feel the brush of wind against her skin. ' we need to go help Shika's team.'_

_Inner gasped as she weathered the burning chill flooding their link. She took deep breaths as the chakra settled into her meager pool of it. Everything grew sharper, her breaths came easier and the breeze ruffled short pink locks. 'I recognize Raidō's chakra, he used to watch us when mom and dad were on border patrol. Use the stasis seals on them, Shizune and that toku-jo from the chūnin exams are heading right for you. I'll leave markers.'_

_The warmth thrumming through her body was staggering, sure after the forest, they were closer and were on the same page more often than not, but this, this was absolute proof of her Restraint's trust. 'Be smart Saku, those Oto assholes swatted two jōnin aside like flies.'_

* * *

_**Sakura; the Restraint  
** _

* * *

_It was hard, perhaps the most difficult thing she's ever done, to cut off the flow of chakra through her body and run under her own power. During the one month training period before the 3 rd stage of the chūnin exams, she learned her family's chakra coils mature slowly. So slow, in fact, she won't come into her true reserves of chakra until she's 21. After getting over the shock of everything that happened in the Forest of Death, her dad came down hard on her training and pushed her to her limits; without the use of chakra. The only time she relied on her chakra was to locate Shikamaru's team and re-adjust her course._

* * *

  _“Wake up,” She fought against the urge to open her eyes as she kept her breathing even. “you'll catch your death sleeping out here.”_

_“Ko, what's wro-”_

_“-Uchiha Sasuke defected to Oto sometime last night. He incapacitated the gate guards.” She said, cutting Izumo off, "Go alert the med-nin on duty, I'll report to Hokage-sama."_

_"We can't just leave all these documents_ _lying a_ _round," Izumo trails off as she pulls a storage scroll from her weapons pouch and starts sealing away the towering stacks of said documents they were carrying into it. "Haruno...we're so stupid."_

_"Yep."_

_Her feet crack the tiles on the building's roof, her shout drowns out the noise, "I'll take 'em, go get the med-nin!"_

_She used a few extra seconds between jumps to maximize her distance and to minimize chakra wastage; first order of business when this was over, was to work on her base stamina and strength._ _A small eternity and shock waves of pain shooting up her calves later, she rapped the frame of the jōnin entrance to the Hokage's office before climbing in. “_ _Shishou, he defected.”_

_There was an exasperated huff from the Godiame.“I haven't agreed to train you, yet.”_

_“You will when I tell you about how my clan's bloodline makes it ridiculously easy for me to control my chakra and sense the density, speed, and frequency of other peoples' chakra.”_

_“You and every other medic-nin,” Tsunade raises an unimpressed brow. “big deal.”_

_“Ah,” She crosses the room and unrolls the storage scroll.“but can they than draw out a foreign chakra in their patient's chakra coils and use their excellent chakra control to utilize it to then heal said patient?”_

_“I call bullshit...” She was methodical and precise when organizing the stacks of stored paperwork across the fifth's desk. When she was finished she deliberately dropped the genjutsu hiding the scars along her arm. They started at her fingertips, the flame-like pattern spiraled over her fingers and palm crawling up and over the back of her hand before stopping half-way up her left arm. The flame-like scars were a dark purple, she is often entranced by the striations of black, dark blue, and gray running through the flames; exactly like the toxic chakra bubbling from the curse mark on Sasuke's neck._

_“Sasuke would have died if I had not been able to harness Orochimaru's chakra and draw it out and burn through it with academy bunshin. And before you yell at me for wasting time while Sasuke gets further and further away...I placed an experimental tracking seal on him and sent my Inner after him.”_

_“Your Inner?”_

_“A yin chakra construct with the same capabilities as myself. Inner Sakura has a chakra pool independent of my reserves and because of our prodigious chakra control, she can use **Kawarimi** at least forty times or whichever jutsu she needs before running out of chakra.” _

_“Where are Hagane and Kamizuki?”_

_“Alerting the on-duty med-nin to the injured gate guards and guarding the gates.”_

_“Boar send a messenger to the Nara compound to summon Nara Shikamaru to my office immediately. Haruno, wait for Nara's assembled team to leave and tail them from a distance." The Hokage mutters under her breath and Sakura can't make out what she's saying, "I'm suspending disbelief only because I can sense your active use of yin chakra right now. If you can communicate with Inner Sakura her main priority is going after Uchiha, I need you to make sure Nara's team comes back alive."_

_“Yes Ma'am.”_

* * *

_Two surges of chakra slammed into her like a freight train, sending her to her knees. Her vision blurring as she blinked away tears from the throbbing ache behind her eyes. Both chakra signatures vanished soon after she'd felt them. She forced herself to her feet and bolted in the direction of the battle._

_The trees were thinning when she spied the massive crater and leapt out of the trees. She landed on the edge and her scars were aglow. It was in that moment, she picked up on the residual curse mark chakra...the whole crater was layered with it._

_Loose dirt shifting, alerted her to the figures at the bottom. She caught sight of Chouji and gasped, flaring out from his back were giant blue wings made from his chakra; they were butterfly wings. His opponent's skin was leeched of its reddish brown hue, at the same time Chouji collapsed to his knees, she saw the Oto nin reaching for a weapon. Her eyes shifted to Chouji, he wasn't moving, she drew a kunai and circulated her chakra through her coils.“ **Kawarimi**.”_

_Sparks slid off her kunai as she parried the giant's swing, using her opponent's momentary surprise, she let go of her kunai. With no more resistance the giant stumbled, she ducked under his arm and threw herself forward. Sliding in between his legs she caught her knife and sliced the giant's left hamstring. The thud of his knee hitting the ground hadn't even faded before she spun, grabbed his hair to pull his head back, and slashed his throat before shoving his body aside._

_“S-Sakura,” Chouji rasped. He'd seen the flash of the giant Oto nin's kunai as he was rushing at him. His body was screaming at him to move, but moving was pure agony, he was in too much pain to even close his eyes. Chouji watched with wide disbelieving eyes as an expanse of dark gray with a black skull and cross bones encircled by a solid white line shielded him from the Oto nin's attack.“what are you doing here?”_

_“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,” She said as she pulled him up from the ground and slung his arm over her shoulders. “I figured with Ino on your team, you and Shikamaru would've heard that phrase by now. Hokage-sama saw fit to assign me to the mission as both supplementary back up and making Sasuke's retrieval a priority, but if there's one thing any Konoha nin can bank on; we will never abandon our friends to complete a mission.”_

_“We're f-friends?” His free hand grips his chest, trying to calm the burning muscle._

_Sakura takes more of his weight as they enter the trees and looks around for a good place to guide him to; there's no telling if the other Oto nin will circle back around or if bandits will stumble across the area. She catches sight of a crude arrow carved into the bark of a tree. They're close enough to touch the bark when she says,“You're friends with Ino, and that makes you my friend by extension. Though after this I would like to get to know you some more. If you're willing?”_

_“I'm not going to make it back.” His tears spill over at seeing the arrow in the tree as he's lowered to the ground._

_“If you think,” Her hands are steady as she liberates a sealing tag with one of her unfinished medical stasis seals on it from her weapons pouch. She designed this one after her mom had spoken of the poisons without antidotes being the reason for most shinobi dying on missions; her seal would freeze the poison until a med-nin could extract it. “for one second,” Her chakra buzzed along the kanji filled circles, connected by overlapping outer circles and more intricate kanji. “that I am going to let Oto,” Once the ink was glowing bright green with medical chakra, she slapped the tag over Chouji's heart. “take anyone else away from me, you're the dumbest fucking person on the planet.”_

_She carried the memory of his small grin with her as she leapt through the trees, hoping against hope her seal would last long enough for the medic teams to get him back to Konoha. A giant white tree with blood red leaves, in the forest of her mind, shed more of its foliage and with each one that fell; her affection for Sasuke lessened.'How dare he choose the traitorous snake over us?!'_

_The only response from Inner was a rush of warmth and a hardening resolve to drag Sasuke back to Konoha by any means necessary._

* * *

_**Inner Sakura  
** _

* * *

_She cursed the need to be secretive about their bloodline as she left Genma and Raidō behind; it helped knowing their teammates were coming for them. Genma had been the first to regain consciousness after she'd placed the seals. He apologized for doubting her story. At one point during the fight, she switched places with his discarded senbon and used her body to shield his from the six armed Oto nin's gold shuriken. Had she been a mere genin or her Restraint, the attack would have killed her. She'd done the same to aid Raidō, she stuck strictly to the least chakra intensive support tactics, as she switched discarded kunai with mini-explosive tags for **Cherry Blossom Blizzard**._

_“Hehe...” She curled her lip in a silent snarl at hearing the Oto nin's mocking laughter. “you'll be my first prey, so lets play the 'which one's real?' guessing game, shall we?”_

_Her feet touched down on the tree branch directly opposite and slightly lower of Six arms, and his webs. She saw his highest left arm shoot forward and released the barbed golden hook in that hand. “The first one will be on the end-”_

_She launched her kunai with a burst of chakra sending it flying toward the six armed Oto nin, softly she whispered,“ **Kawarimi**.” When his second right arm came up to deflected it, she ignited her flash bang tag and dropped a smoke bomb. Using the smoke and the Oto nin's high pitched scream to disguise her movements, she made her way over to Neji's location. _

_She was forced to stop when his fingertips press into her back. “So, she has the Haruno bloodline then?”_

_“Yes. We only have a few seconds before six arms notices us,” She pulls out four markers and holds them out. “experimental tracking markers. Get them onto the others when you go down there, yeah?”_

_“How far behind is your Restraint?” She could feel his chakra gathering through his fingertips, they were still pressed to her back. He was going to give her an infusion._

_“Conserve your chakra, Hyūga. We're approaching our limit.”As he accepts the markers from her hand, she unrolls the map, and says. “My Restraint is two and a half hours behind, Chouji defeated the giant Oto nin.”_

_“Good luck Inner Sakura.” She stashes the map in her pack before extracting a storage scroll. When the pack vanishes, she holds the scroll out to him._

_“And to you Hyūga.” Once more he accepts her offering and at his nod, she leapt away from him._

_She looked back only once when Neji's chakra flared, she watched as he blocked the six armed Oto nin's attempt at trapping the rest of the retrieval team in another web. Inner's face broke out in a wide grin, the Hyūga was fast, and kept downwind of Kiba and Akamaru._

* * *

“That was you?!” Naruto exclaimed as the imagine shifted back to the real Sakura.

Sasuke tuned the two of them out while he tried to wrap his head around another perspective of the night he left Konoha. How willing she was to help him make a clean escape, despite the ulterior motive to tag him, but the most pressing question was why...

“Why?”The conversation, as well as the memory, stopped at his question. He was unnerved by Inner Sakura's appearance an inch away from his face, mostly it was the flat look she leveled at him.

“ _We weren't sure if you would leave the gate guards alive if they tried to stop you_ ,” He shrank back from her as she leaned even further into his personal space. “ _not after you almost killed Naru on the hospital roof._ ”

“I-” He sighed, “I wouldn't have.”

The look of betrayal, hurt, and disappointment he could feel from Naruto was nothing to the flat look still on Inner Sakura's face.

* * *

**_Sakura; the Restraint  
_ **

* * *

 " _Hah,” A bout of violent hacking coughs interrupted the six armed Oto nin, blood flew from his mouth, the droplets splattering over his chest. “Sasuke belongs to Orochimaru-sama now-”_

_More hacking coughs cut him off as his lowest left arm rose to deflect her kunai. The kunai thunk-ed into the tree behind him, a drop of blood splashed onto the tree's protruding roots. She stepped out from the tree line in front of Neji._

_“Not yet,” When she drew level with Neji, she eased him to a seated position and prepped another medical seal.“and not ever, if I have anything to say about it.”_

_“The seal will hopefully keep you alive long enough for the medical teams to arrive.” She placed a tag over the gaping wound in his stomach. Before moving him into the tree line and sat him down behind a large bush._

_“What about...”_

_“The kunai was poisoned. You're not allowed to die until you've apologized to Hinata for being a dickhead, okay?”_

_His weak chuckle turned into a bout of body shaking coughs. She hastily pulled out another tag, but a bruising grip on her wrist halted her movements. “Conserve your tags, Haruno. The others will have more need of them than I.”_

_He squeezed her wrist hard enough that the bones gave a warning creak, but all she felt was warm at his words;_ _Hyūga Neji trusts in her strength. He lets her go a moment later and with a shaking hand, extricates the first storage scroll she ever made._

_“Inner Sakura had me place markers on the team.” The moment the scroll leaves his hand, he gives into the creeping darkness. The last images he sees is the fury of a kunoichi, burning in pale jade depths and a flash of pink disappearing into the tree tops._

_Smoke billows off the luminous white bark, dimming its light and as even more leaves fall, her only thought is: the kind of power he's chasing isn't worth this._

_She's stopped to liberate the pack, by extension the map, from her scroll when the lava lances into her body, her mouth opens in a silent scream as she collapses in heap. Her visions is blackening with each passing second, the lava blocks out all sensation so she misses the soft foot falls. Her muscles tense, but do not move away from the hand on her shoulder._

_The voice is muffled and distant, but after awhile she makes out,“Konoha, hey Konoha, where are you injured?”_

_“C-Chakra's fluctuating, k-keep c-contact.” She grits out before focusing on maintaining the coating of yang chakra over the coils in her brain as Inner settles in._

_Sakura isn't sure how long its been when the constant push-pull of fire and ice subsides enough for her to sit up. When she looks to her rescuers, she leaps across the clearing and brandishes a kunai at the sand siblings. Her eyes bounce from the kunoichi, Temari is Inner's whisper, to the puppet user, Kankurō, before landing on the jinchūriki, Gaara. 'Easy, Saku. They didn't attack us nor have they moved a muscle.'_

_To reinforce Inner's point, Temari holds both hands up to show that she's not carrying any weapons. “Relax Candyfloss, your Godiame requested back up for a retrieval team and we're it.”_

_“Don't ever call me that again,” Her killing intent explodes outward and she smiles when Kankurō flinches.“my name is Sakura.”_

_“I'll call you whatever I want, weakling.”_

_“Twelve”_

_“What?”_

_“I killed six Oto nin and six Suna rats during the invasion,” Her smile is all teeth. “and all six of those rats were jōnin. So don't call me weak when I chewed up your best nin and spat them out like they were academy brats.”_

_“Why you-”_

_“-Enough, Temari.” His tone is firm and quiet. His sea green eyes lock with hers. “Chūnin Haruno placed an experimental tracking seal on the Uchiha, and should be able to lead us in the right direction.”_

_“Yeah right.” Temari huffed under her breath._

_She stowed her kunai and lashed out with a chakra thread, the siblings all tensed, but relaxed when she merely yanked a pale pink scroll toward herself. “I can do more than that, I had the opportunity to tag the retrieval team with my seal too.”_

* * *

“Whoa,” He mirrored Naruto's astonishment at the turn the memory took. Sasuke watched as different emotions flitted across his idiot's face. Before Naruto addressed Inner Sakura with utmost seriousness in his every word. “can I tell Shikamaru, Kiba, and Lee about this?”

He almost, almost, felt bad for the idiot when Inner Sakura's blank face rested on him. “My Restraint has already told them about it.”

It was the way Inner Sakura's voice sounded so...hollow and just...blank, from the moment they'd arrived and any interaction with her since, she's been blank. The air in his lungs cuts like shards of glass as he exhales with the realization, but just as he couldn't speak of the atrocities in store between him and Sakura to Naruto, he could not voice this either. He doesn't see the small quirk of Inner Sakura's lip, in the face of his naked despair being on display for all to see; except Naruto doesn't.

* * *

_“I am more special than you.” The thing, Sasuke has become, screams this across the river. Her chakra roils in time with the dense red chakra shrouding Naruto like a cloak._

_“Special,” It came out a snarl of rage so visceral, it threatens to crack her eardrums, the rocks beneath Naruto's feet aren't so lucky as they crumble. “Is that what it is...”_

_“Kukuku...” The white tree is a blackened husk and as a gust of wind tears through the forest, it explodes into ash; the ash is carried away by the wind. The only thing remaining is sickly gray stump, its are roots are shriveled up and dead. “I'm not ready to lose.”_

_Naruto's form is a blur of red as he crashes into the base of the statue of Uchiha Madara. When the smoke clears enough for her to see, she gags at the sight. A grayish purple webbed hand-like wing is protruding from the left side of his back. For a moment everything is still, a second later and a few pained grunts escaped the winged creature's mouth before a second wing sprouts to mirror the wing on the left. She tears her eyes away and tunes out their shouted banter as best as she can._

_'I hate what he's become. What they both have...and for what? A stupid rivalry? Revenge? Friendship? Friends don't do this.' She wants to scream, to cry, to beat their faces in for perpetuating more suffering on each other._

_The first barbs they traded made her heart hurt and they weren't even aimed at her; she can't image what Naruto is feeling right now. Her blonde idiot and the traitor don't give Inner a chance to answer. The giant ball of chakra takes the breath from her lungs, forcing her to her knees as she gasps trying to muscle through the sheer power of their clashing jutsu._

_She takes a deep breath when the ball explodes, obliterating the bottom half of both statues, and speeds through the signs as fast as she can. '_ _**Restraint Release: Chakra Cloak** _ _' Sakura ignores the burning chill of her Yin chakra as it sweeps down her body from crown to toe. Her will is iron as she forces the black chakra to adhere to her arm and shin guards. Her hand forms one sign, her eyes lock onto the ground where Naruto is going to land. '_ _**Kawarimi** _ _'_

_His impact with her arms is jarring and she feels something in her left shoulder twinge and snap. No sound escapes her mouth as she staggers under the force of his momentum; the ground shatters around her. Her head snaps up at the sound of footsteps; Sasuke is striding toward them._

_She hugs Naruto's limp form even closer to her chest and looses her grip on her chakra cloak. The black sheen on her dad's armor dulls and fades away, her chakra sweeps invisibly over her skin.“There's no need to gloat when you've already won,” Undeterred by her words, he continues to move closer. With every step he takes, she takes a step back; she can't stop seeing him ram his arm through Naruto's lung and mocking him.“get the fuck away from us.”_

_“Hn.” He snorts, all she hears is the chirping of a thousand birds, but doesn't stop coming at her._

_“Come any closer,” Her face is blank, her lips are wide in the sweetest smile, and her eyes pierce right through him; its a lie, “and I'll kill you.”_

_In a flash he's in front of her reaching for Naruto and she is paralyzed, it is not her childhood crush reaching out for them, but Orochimaru. The muscles in her left arm spasm sending shockwaves of pain to her shoulder, her jaw clenches and she leans back to avoid the lunge. Inner's punch catches him in the gut. A soft breathless gasp falls from his mouth before he's sailing through the air; his headband clatters to the ground at her feet._

_Her body trembles as she closes her eyes, trusting Inner to protect them, and reaches for the lingering remnants of chakra from Naruto and Sasuke's earlier clash, the chakra is so dense it sits heavy in her stomach and lungs. 'I-I've got it,' She carefully lowers Naruto to the ground as Inner races through the signs, they form the last one together. “ **S-Suiton: Suiryūdan** ” _

_Sakura spits the compressed roiling ball of black water into the river. Icy droplets splash her as the head of a dragon surges into the air after Sasuke. Her ears pick up the sound of splintering wood._

_“Sasuk-ke.” She whispers, voice breaking, as she drops to the ground in a crouch. Vicious hot tears spill down her cheeks, her eyes are wild as they scan for him._

_“Sasuke!” Her screams echo across the river, torrential, relentless, and empty. Her breath gets lodged in her throat, she can't breathe, her pulse is too fast, and every muscle is taut as a wire. 'I can't feel Sasuke's chakra signature anymore, Saku. Take a deep breath.'_

_She shakes her head, she can't, its like the air's turned into syrup and it sticking in her lungs. 'Take a fucking breath, you can do it. You're not useless.'_

_Another head shake. She can't, she can't, she can't. 'Naruto needs you to take a fucking breath,' Inner closes her eyes and resigns herself to being ignored for what comes out of her mouth next, 'Sasuke's moved back into range.'_

_A white hot knife of adrenaline slashes through her panic as she bolts for Naruto, hoists him up, and slings him over a shoulder. Its for Naruto's sake that she mechanically scoops up Sasuke's headband before chakra is coating her muscles and she leaps up the statue of the first Hokage; she doesn't stop running until she literally crashes into Kakashi._

* * *

“She was afraid of me...” Sasuke tears his eyes away from the memory and dry heaves. He flails his arm when a hand lands on his shoulder and scrambles out of their reach. “She's-” _always been afraid of me ever since the Valley of the End._

“Sasuke,” His throat closes up at the gentleness in his idiot's tone. “there's still a chance to make amends with Sakura. And sure, it'll be a long, long, long, super long ass road, but the three of us will get there if we try.”

It eased the tension in him upon hearing his idiot's boundless optimism. He didn't try to say anything as it could easily be misconstrued as a warning, so he settled for a nod and braced for the next memory.

“Oh man,” Naruto's distressed groan was his only warning as the ceaseless rain stopped, “isn't there a way to take a break from these?”

“ _No._ ” It was the first inflection of emotion from Inner Sakura he'd heard, it didn't help that it was anger she was directing at his idiot, at least she felt something toward Naruto. He heard an exhausted sigh, _“this wasn't a good day for us either._ ”

Before he had a chance to demand answers, the memory started and he would soon learn just how much he'd broken his two soulmates when he left to join Orochimaru.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Jutsu List:**  
>  Restraint Release: Chakra Clone  
> The Restraint uses an abundance of yin chakra, ¾ or ½ of their total chakra, to create a clone for their Inner to inhabit. The Inner will only return to their Restraint when their chakra pool runs out or they physically rejoin with their Restraint's chakra. The clone can receive additional yin chakra from their Restraint or an infusion of yin chakra from another person; so long as the person matches their chakra frequency to the Restraint's. Yin chakra has to come directly from their Restraint's or a person's natural reserves of chakra, any chakra from a soldier pill will be too disruptive for the Inner to mold. The Inner and Restraint can communicate, see, and hear what the other one does in real time when they channel Yang and Yin chakra respectively.  
> Chakra Seal Transfer: The Haruno clan developed a way to transfer seals through a single touch with just their chakra. Unlike the Uzumaki who need pre-prepared chakra infused ink for their seal transfer jutsu.  
> shunshin: Body Flicker a ninja can move short to long distances at an almost untraceable speed.  
> Kawarimi: Substitution  
> Cherry Blossom Blizzard: Uses a combination of cherry blossom petals and miniature explosive tags to trick an enemy into a false sense of security before igniting the mini explosive tags to set off a continuous chain of explosions. [ ** _Sakura uses it in the Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow movie. Why the fuck doesn't she use it in the anime or manga?!_** ]  
> Restraint Release: Chakra Cloak  
> Like a Bijū cloak the Inner is manifested over their Restraint's skin. Usually in the form of bandages, tethered to existing armor plates, as extra armor plates, a haori, or a faint outline of black chakra. However, using yang chakra to balance out their Inner's yin chakra, the cloak is not physically detrimental to the Restraint. In this state the Inner can emerge from any point of their Restraint's body to assist in close combat, unleash their Inner Control with greater ease, or any number of jutsu if their Restraint is at a disadvantage; such as elemental jutsu or mimic another jutsu with a chakra construct. Elemental jutsu performed with the cloak active is infused with a portion of the Restraint's Inner, allowing total control of the jutsu and element its comprised of as the an extension of the Restraint's will. [Think, Shukaku's sand]  
> The Chakra Cloak doesn't need a set amount of chakra to activate. However, each second with their Inner manifested as the cloak, all mental and emotional pain experienced during battle is amplified ten fold when the Cloak is deactivated; killing intent, genjutsu or emotional upheaval, fear, anger, etc.  
> Suiton: Suiryūdan: Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet  
> Kekkei Genkai: Bloodline limit
> 
> [ ** _Remember no one is forcing you to read the end notes, proceed at your own risk..._** ]
> 
> Sakura has consistently been able to perform in spite of overwhelming fear notable exception was the first run in with Orochimaru during the chūnin exams, but after that she fought the Oto nin, jumped in front of a semi-transformed Gaara, and tried to stop N & S from killing each other. Gaara must have been leaking Shukaku's killing intent...
> 
> Before you say anything...Neji's a Hyūga he can see the difference in chakras, Tsunade pegged Sai's boss before she left the village for the first time; like she knew Danzo was shade-y AF...and would you believe Sakura about her fantastical bloodline? 
> 
> Anyways, I know Sakura seems like a B.A already, but now that she's not forced to be stupid for the sake of the plot, has a cool bloodline, and received a crash course on it from her dad, it does not make her a master over night; she knows she'd get slaughtered by the sound four and would've gotten squashed like a bug during N & S's fight. [ ** _Cause even then it was ridiculous how OP N & S both were, and Sakura should have been there in Canon, their fight was like Clash of the Titans. _** ] Further more, Sakura is going to be a ninja I would have liked to have seen in Naruto; stealthy, smart, and not afraid to remove threats permanently; though with lots and lots of PTSD and issues because killing is traumatic and has consequences on the psyche. [Kakashi]
> 
> Lastly, I would love to know which parts you like and what parts were a little lacking. I'm not going to bite your head off for pointing out what I need to improve on in my writing, but I will not tolerate point blank trolling or being yelled at how Sasuke and Naruto are being bashed or some shit. These are their flaws in Canon and if you don't believe me, go re-read the manga its all there in black and white. 
> 
> P.S. I'm going in for Surgery tomorrow so...it might be a minute before there's an update. I'll post an author's note to let you know I'm alright when I get home. Wish me luck and enjoy the chapter!


	3. Disappearing Act; Power Hungry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The emotionally charged aftermath of N&S's clash in the Valley of the End between Naruto and Sakura isn't fun for anyone. Adult N&S discover the lengths Sakura went to, to allow Sasuke to be welcomed back to the village despite his treachery during another charged conversation between Ino and Sakura.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We are officially breaking from canon in the last part of this chapter and in the next chapters. My surgery went okay, I've just been working on this chapter to get it done for an update. [ ** _I'm going to try to update every Friday, keyword being TRY._** ] 
> 
> Please ignore any errors, I'll comb over this later for those. 
> 
> P.S All your faves are probably alive because I said so...except for Danzo, Madara, Zetsu, Kabuto, the 3rd Hokage, the half of Akasuki with O.P-ness and god modding, and pretty much all of the villains. Kisame is alive because the shark man is awesome, Konan because she got short-changed like every other female character in Naruto, and Orochimaru because **Spoilers!**

**_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or its characters. I own only the plots/ideas/situations I have placed the characters in._ **

* * *

_She was aware Shikamaru and the Godiame were in the room, but she didn't care. “Stop apologizing. Horns of the Sage, I'm the one who let him go.”_

_“You were at the valley,” His shout raises the hair on the back of her neck, it rang with faint traces of the kyuubi's chakra.“I thought I told you to wait for us to come back?!”_

_“I am not some glass princess that needs to be coddled, Naruto.” Her ears echo with Dosu's scream as her kunai drills through his arm, she feels the sticky warmth of_ _Jirōbō's blood on her skin, and the pungent smell of Zaku's intestines fills her nose._

_“Do you know I have an eidetic memory,” She smiles at his confused look, so she clarifies, “or photographic for the lay man. It also extends to my chakra too, the reason I'm a genjutsu type is because my chakra knows exactly how it should be. When I use my sensing abilities, I can memorize the feel of another person's chakra and I will never forget it.”_

_Her hands are shaking and she clenches them so he doesn't see,_ _“I will never forget the feel of his chakra, or Kakashi's, or yours. Or Orochimaru's as it flooded that fucking creature with power.”_

_“Sasuke wasn't himself-”_

_“-No he was himself!” She hisses as she stalks to the foot of his bed, body trembling, and stares into watery blues. “Kakashi's seal over the curse mark was only as strong as he willed it to be. He choose Orochimaru's curse mark, he let it into his body and became a traitor like his brother.”_

_“What happened to you, I saw how upset you were at the gates, but now, its like you don't even care about him anymore.” He stares back and the glimmer of hurt at her betrayal in accusing blue, is the last straw._

_'What happened to me?' She mouths silently, tearing her eyes away from his. She tries, so hard, to stop her tears as the vision of his small frame dangling from Sasuke's grip flashes across her mind, but they fall anyway._

_His body had swayed in the wind as dark red swallowed neon orange, it dripped from his right hand in an endless stream; he was so still, for so long, she thought he'd died. Inner was sobbing at the back of her mind shouldering as much of the crushing weight as she could to prevent an outward reaction; that would give away their position. Even she couldn't shoulder it all._

_The memories of every time she'd hit him, called him an idiot, or ignored him rose up to torture her; Sage take her chakra, she was a cruel heartless bitch. She didn't hate him, she was jealous of how free he was. He was never afraid to be himself, he didn't follow the crowd and when he was pushed away, he pushed back. He was kind and protective, always ready to lend a hand, an ear, or a kunai even if his aim was hopeless. He gave everything of himself to others, to her, Sasuke too, and all she ever did was take. Now she would never get the chance to apologize to him. The dense black chakra pulsed icy and hot in her veins, it tugged on her muscles and when she looked up, a bijū cloak was forming around Naruto._

_“What happened to me?! I watched my childhood crush ram his arm through your chest and gloat about it. His new allies almost killed two jōnin, Chouji, Neji, Kiba and Akamaru, Lee was barely recovered from his surgery and has to undergo another one, and Shikamaru wanted to quit. And you're still defending him, still making excuses for the asshole who abandoned his friends to join the man who invaded the village, killing countless shinobi and civilians; my parents were among the dead.”_

_“Sakura I...why didn't you tell us?”_

_“Their bodies were unidentifiable through normal means.” She feels the tightness in her chest as her mind fills with the mangled bodies of her parents, a breathless sob escapes her before she shoves her grief back down.“Kakashi was there when the messenger found me, he waited with me while they ran my blood against the list they'd complied of the deceased. I asked him to inform the two of you when the results came back, but we both know Kaka-sensei doesn't seem to care about me unless I'm going to die in front of him.”_

_“Sakura that's not, he's-”_

_She laughs, it bubbles up and out of her throat at Naruto's floundering, with such force that she has to grab onto the end of his bed to stay upright. “He's what? A good sensei? Oh please, he left me to train on my own for the 3_ _rd_ _round. At least he made an effort with you, lackluster though it probably was.”_

_“That's not true, Kakashi-sensei wouldn't abandoned you like that. Neither would I or Sasuke.” His face draining of color as the look of unadulterated horror spread across it, it did nothing to lessen the maelstrom of her surging chakra. She couldn't see Inner, but her shadow was looming behind her and was likely piquing Shikamaru's interest with all the yin chakra amassing in the air._

_“It is though. Its always about him or you, and I get it. It took a while, but I understand.”_

_“I'm sorry.” His apology grates on her, there he was giving even more to her. She takes a deep breath and reels in her chakra. “I promised I'd get him back and it'll take longer than I promised...”_

_'He doesn't even realize how much farther his feelings for Sasuke go. Does he?'_

_'What'd you expect, he's our oblivious idiot savant.' Inner says quietly._

_' He was never ours, and stop it,' Inner has been docile and reluctant to oppose her since the Valley, and it was starting to grate on her. 'you protected me, like you're supposed to.'_

_“Naruto,” He falls silent mid-sentence and when his attention is on her, she plasters a fake smile on her face, “I'm sorry for not trying hard enough to stop him. I couldn't have protected you and fought him at the same time, I'm not strong like the two of you are...not yet. So I'll make you a promise, I promise to get stronger and help you get him back.”_

_Sakura turns, ignoring his protests, and walks for the door, she hears the Godiame whisper, “Six am, training ground seventeen.”_

_“Yes, shishou.” She whispers before exiting the room. Once in the hallway, she forms a hand sign. ' **Shunshin**_ '

* * *

_It's the smell of cut grass and honey filling her nose that breaks her. She clamps a hand over her mouth to muffle her scream as her knees hit the hardwood floor of Ino's bedroom. Her chakra roils beneath her skin, icy and hot sensations tearing through her. “I-I hate t-them.”_

_“You've never had much patience for idiocy.” Ino's voice is gentle, but firm. She sees Ino toss her magazine aside and reach toward her. Sakura doesn't resist when Ino pulls her onto her lap. She collapses into the embrace, the tension in her body vanishes and a new wave of tears run down her face._

_“I thought S-S-Sas-”She swallows against the bile at the back of her throat, her vision clouds with the grayish-purple wings protruding from that thing's back, from Sasuke's, “he killed N-Naruto.”_

_“You've wanted to kill him yourself a couple of times, but the most you'd do is give him a bruise for not taking 'No' for an answer.”_

_“He punched a hole through him with **Chidori**_ _and then he smirked, Ino. H-He was deranged, it was like Orochimaru was u-using him as a puppet. I was, am terrified of him.” She presses further into Ino, as the images of those awful gold eyes surrounded by black pin her in place, she's always felt safe with Ino._

_“I'm throwing in the t-towel,” Sakura's hand grasps Ino's free one and entwines their fingers. “any feelings I have for those two would be eclipsed by the ones they have for each other.”_

_Ino's chakra is warm and zingy, like it always was. “There is such a thing as soulmate Triads, Forehead. Maybe they'll be your soulmates.”_

_“Perpetual third-wheeling is not my idea of happily ever after, Pig.” She sighed and closed her eyes, “ And maybe he'll magically show up tomorrow at the gates with Orochimaru's head on a pike and say 'just kidding, it was a deep undercover S-rank mission to assassinate Konoha's most notorious missing-nin'.”_  

* * *

His jaw was on the floor and from the corner of his eye, he saw Naruto was equally as gob-smacked as him; Sakura had given Naruto a scroll on the last day of his trial. The scroll detailed an S-ranked deep undercover mission to assassinate Orochimaru in the Godaime's handwriting and had her signature at the bottom, making it official. It was the main reason he was pardoned after serving two years probation with sealed chakra doing the most undesirable D-ranks under supervision of a tracking and capture ANBU unit, and mandatory counseling with a Yamanaka from the Psych division of T&I.

He felt like there was a giant kikaichū carving through his body. His teammate, the pink haired annoying fangirl who fawned over him in their youth, the one he tried to kill several times, who had every reason to hate him, had found away to save his undeserving ass. “Did you...”

“ _That was before-_ ” Sasuke didn't feel a rush of satisfaction or vindictive joy when Inner Sakura was forced to closed her mouth. It seemed him and Naruto weren't the only ones affected by the Dreaming's rules. “ _She still cared enough about you to convince our shishou to draft the mission scroll after Naruto left the village with Jiraiya._ ”

“How'd you get her to sign off on it?”

“Yeah, I can't imagine granny would've gone for that.”

“ _You'll see._ ”

* * *

_Her hand closed around the kunai under her pillow as she probed the room with her chakra, she loosed an exasperated huff when Naruto's blazing ocean of chakra greeted her. Though she was surprised to see him grinning at her through the window, considering how he's been avoiding her for the better part of a week. She didn't have the strength for another round with his foolish optimism and had jumped into her training under Tsunade with a scary focus, at least according to Raidō and Genma._

_“Its open,” Despite what she'd told Ino and what she'd said to Inner in the hospital, she shot her blonde idiot a fond smile when he cast a dubious glance at the fūinjutsu around the window's frame.“and those aren't active yet.”_

_With a lot more caution than she'd ever seen him use, Naruto slid the window open and stayed perched on the window's ledge. “I'm not going to bite your head off. Get in here, you dummy.”_

_He flashed her a another grin and tumbled gracelessly onto her floor. She let go of the kunai, tucked it back under her pillow, and sat up. She pulled her legs under her and leaned back against the wall before patting the space next to her. There was another moment of hesitation from him before he sat down._

_“So, uh after you left Shikamaru and granny spelled it out for me,” It was odd hearing and seeing him fidget, Naruto was never self-conscious. “when did you start caring about me as much as him?”_

_“Before I answer that, why don't you hate me? I wasn't the nicest to you while we were in the academy, I hit you and called you an idiot a lot.” She isn't sure whose more shocked, her or Inner, when Naruto laughs at that._

_“Yeah, but you only did that when I was annoying you during study time and you hit me when I invaded your personal space.”_

_“Those are just excuses and not very good ones, please don't make them for me. I wasn't a good person then.” She's going to start crying if he keeps it up._

_“I wasn't either. I acted like you and the other girls did around...” He trails off and she is grateful he doesn't finish. “I mean we could go on and on in an endless circle about who was more horrible to each other, but you had your moments. You never once ignored me when I asked you to help me understand something about our lessons and I know it was you bringing extra snacks and leaving them on the swing where I ate my lunch from third year until we graduated. You didn't hate me like the villagers did for no reason that I knew of, you were just super annoyed by me, but because of the things I did to make you annoyed with me.”_

_“You really are the biggest dummy I've ever met.” She grabs a tissue from the box by her alarm clock and blows her nose. “Only you would appreciate someone who was annoyed by your own merits instead of for something beyond your control.”_

_“So...?”_

_“Honestly,” She slowly tilted her head until it rested on his shoulder, “about the same time I noticed him in the academy. He was dark, brooding, cool, and so pretty, it was criminal.”_

_“P-Pretty?” His shoulders were shaking with his laughter._

* * *

“I was thinking of Haku when she said that, but I saw what she meant when we busted into Orochimaru's base to find you,” He shrank back as far as he could from the feeling of dread and the glint in sky blue. “I had to bite my lip from calling you 'pretty boy'.”

“Whatever was stopping you before, isn't now.” He grumbles without an ounce of malice in his tone. He needed the levity to weather the storm of the next few memories. Sasuke's left cheek tingled, before long the rest of him would hurt just as much, if not more.

“Oh shut up, you love it when I call you my pretty boy.”

“Hn.” He cursed his complexion, the heat in his cheeks, and how his idiot could fluster him this much with a flippant compliment. “Dobe.”

From the corner of his eye, he saw Inner Sakura turn away to give them as much privacy as the Dreaming would allow her too. The kikaichū was back at it as he was flooded with guilt at what they were doing, yet again. He could see why she'd told Ino she was giving up on them, him and Naruto got lost within each other with little to no thought to anyone around them, even their own soulmate.

Naruto had clambered onto his lap, still chattering, at some point and he'd unconsciously put his chin on a bare shoulder, his arms wrapped around his idiot's waist; it was summer and the blonde's swamp cooler was busted, so he slept shirtless. When he started to try and extricate himself, without alerting Naruto to what he was doing, he heard a soft whisper, “ _Don't, we both know what's coming, you need this affection from him._ ”

He stopped moving and let Naruto sit in his lap, but his brow furrowed because he could see Inner Sakura was still in front of them, facing the other way.

“ _I talk to Saku all the time and my timing can be impeccable and the worst, but that's only because of how our relationship is...and this is my domain. I can throw my voice from any direction, make it so only one of you hear me, and other things._ ” He sees her shoulders move in a shrug, “ _Saku and I are used to the two of you getting lost in each other._ ”

He was wrong about the blankness in her tone, it was preferable to the bittersweet sadness he heard in her words, it tore into him with the force of hurricane. His grip tightened on Naruto as tears threatened to spill down his face. 'I can't lose him, but I know I will because of what I've done to you.'

“ _You're as much of a dumbass as Naru is, Sasu._ ”

'What do you mean?' She doesn't answer him as she gestures to the frozen image of his younger soulmates. “We'll get Ichiraku's for dinner all this week if you'll shut up and let the memory continue.”

Right before the memory resumes he sees Inner Sakura turn and catches her small smile as their idiot falls silent as a graveyard. It births a warmth in his chest, the smile was for him and Naruto.

* * *

_“You were like a ball of sunshine in comparison, brash, excitable, and always kind, maybe even too kind at times.” He jostles her in reprimand and with a malicious glint in her eyes, retaliates, “When I first saw you, your sky blue eyes were the prettiest I'd ever seen.”_

_“Really?”_

_“Hmm-mmh.”_

_“Thanks.”_

_She snorts at that, he always could roll with the punches life sent his way. “So, what brings you here at this hour?”_

_“Pervy sage is taking me on as his apprentice. We're leaving the village in about two hours and returning in the 'nebulous' future. Whatever the hell that means.” He says complete with finger quotes._

_“It means hazy or unclear.” She heaves a sigh before shifting away from him, “I take it you weren't supposed to see me or tell anyone you're leaving?”_

_“Yeah, but I didn't want to do that after hearing how you felt about,” He gestures with his hands to the rest of her shadow filled room. “things.”_

_'Sage's Horns, we almost lost him and now he's leaving again.' Inner nods in agreement and attempts a mental hug. She can feel the cool sensation of yin chakra pulse through her tenketsu, 'Thanks.'_

_“Alright, so this is goodbye for now...?”_

_“Actually while we were avoiding each for the last week-”_

_“-I don't recall trying to avoid you, becoming a med-nin takes dedication, hard work, and zero distractions.” She says archly with a brow raised and expectant look on her face. She nearly looses it when he rolls his eyes._

_“-I worked on my chakra control enough to do this.” With a wink he bites his thumb and smears blood on his left palm before racing through hand signs. “ **Kuchiyose** ” _

_A small cloud of smoke appears and when it dissipates, a small dark red toad with blue markings around its eyes and goggles hanging from its neck is sitting on her bed. “Sakura this is_ _Kōsuke, Kōsuke this is Sakura. I was hoping you'd be willing to deliver letters to her when Pervy sage sends you to granny with his reports._ _”_

_“Of course,” The little toad says, sounding a little too ecstatic about Naruto undermining Jiraiya before Kōsuke's pale yellow eyes rest on her, “so long as she doesn't mind me hanging around for the next few days to familiarize myself with her chakra signature?”_

_“Not at all. Make yourself at home.”_

_“This place have a pond?”_

_“There's one out back.” In a blink he's gone and she can't help but feel deeply grateful for such a thoughtful gesture._

_“Thank you for not just disappearing, Naruto.”_

_“Like I said, after hearing about how you felt about things, I wasn't going to leave you without a way to keep in touch.” Her heart lurched at how awful she'd been to him, how terribly his life was for so long, so she steeled herself and extended an olive branch._

_“I meant what I said about helping you get him back, but I don't know how to feel about what he's done nor how to feel about him now. However, I'll try to figure out a way for Sasuke to be welcomed back to the village when he pulls his head out of his ass and comes home or when we drag him back here.”_

_“But...?” He hedges with that earlier caution._

_“I won't be going out of my way to defend him to the village. Nor will I let sentiment cloud my judgment if I happen across him on missions. I will take him down before he has a chance to hurt me or anyone I'm with._

_“That's fair.” There's a disappointed lit to his words, but there's understanding in his small nod. “Good luck with Granny's training and stay safe, okay?”_

_She doesn't answer him with words, his whole body goes stiff, but the tension disappears by the time her arms wrap around his back. “You stay safe too.”_

_Sakura let him go a moment later and her eyes tracked him to her window, with a final wave and a blinding grin he vanished from sight. She tracked his chakra across the village until, it too, had vanished. 'It'll be easier with distance, right?'_

_'Probably not,' Inner shrugged, 'we'll never not not care about our idiots.'_

_'Even when they don't care about us in the same way?'_

_'Especially then, we are a glutton for punishment after all.' Inner said, sending a mental nudge to check their alarm clock. When she turned to check, the alarm would go off in a minute. “At least Raidō and Genma are still out on a mission. I don't have to make breakfast for them.”_

_“Did someone say breakfast?” Kōsuke croaked from her window sill. “Cause, as much as I enjoy bugs, bacon owns my soul.”_

_“Why do I attract weirdos who like Kumo cuisine?” She mumbled in a half-groan, half-exhausted sigh, only to be met with a disapproving croak._

_“What was that?”_

_“Breakfast will be ready in 15 minutes, Mr. Kōsuke.” She said, remembering the academy's lessons on conduct around another ninja's summon and being a gracious host like her mother had taught her to be._  

* * *

“Pervy sage always wondered why he was so chipper to deliver his reports to Granny.” Naruto's hair tickled his chin as the blonde chuckled. His heart positively ached, he was happy to see that Naruto and Sakura had parted on good terms after their fight in the hospital. “He's gonna flip when I tell him, Sakura was feeding his messenger toad bacon to gain his loyalty.”

He leaned forward and cleared his throat into Naruto's ear. “I-If that's okay with you and Sakura?”

“ _As long as we're there when you tell him about it_.”

“Believe it!”

Her grin stretches from ear to ear and it looks painful. The two jump into an asinine plot to drop the revelation on Jiraiya's head. He sits in silence and just watches how easy the conversation flows between his soulmates. Its when they resort to inside jokes and obscure references to either veto an idea or settled on a course of action for a certain part of the plan that he's hit with another realization.

He is numb. He can't feel anything beyond just a discomfiting emptiness that engulfs him; Sakura's interactions with him since they defeated Kaguya were all guarded. Her tone and body language was nervous and jittery like he was an enemy turned into reluctant ally or he was a spy sent to kill her. His eyes close against the sight of Naruto and Inner Sakura finalizing their plan.

A moment later, his eyes shoot open when he's no longer sitting on a purple bean bag chair with a shirtless blonde idiot on his lap. The rocky ledge he's sitting on is covered in snow drifts that come up to his chin, there's a moment of silence as the thick fluffy snowflakes lazily swirl through the air. Its a lull in a record breaking month long blizzard for Snow country.

He inhales, the cold air of the memory burns his throat and lungs, than he gently, but firmly taps on Naruto's shoulder. He exhales when Naruto gets off his lap. With stilted motions, a false start, and fighting through wave after wave of nausea, his legs are dangling off the rocky ledge and his hands grip the fabric of his sweat pants. In the valley below an army of bandits face off with Sakura's team of chūnin. Behind him, he hears Naruto move closer and sit down on his right side. He shifts just out of reach and ignores the Pout of Doom **TM** sent his way.

His knuckles are white as he feels Inner Sakura take a seat on his left side, there's a foot of space between them, and he wants to cry; he won't though, he doesn't get to cry over the choices he's made that put that space there. The rocky ledge lurches underneath them and falls away as the massive head of a dragon takes shape from the ice covered rock. On his right Naruto flails, reaching to grab him and Inner Sakura, but he stops short when a thin sheet of black pops into existence where the rock used to be, keeping them from falling down the cliff.

The dragon's head is on a collision course with the main body of the army, Sakura is using a scare tactic to try and intimidate the bandits to break ranks and scatter. It would allow her team time to organize a proper defense for the capital.

“ _ **Raiton: Raikyū**_ ” Several bright blue-white balls of energy float in the air around them, Naruto is the only one who glances to the new comer. He doesn't need to see the sneer twisting his young face nor the vicious edge to his chakra as his hands form the next set of signs. The muscles in his hand scream their protest when he elbows Naruto in the side and points to the imminent clash between him and Sakura as his younger self intones, “ _ **Raiton: Jinraisen**_ ”

Sakura's jutsu shatters as the bright blue-white balls smash into it as they were caught in the vortex of wind created by the blue-white arrow his younger self threw to intercept it. Large chunks of ice covered rocks rain down on a pastel pink head. He remembered how disdainful he was when he watched her swing her right arm at the biggest chunk as its shadow swallowed her.

At the time, his anger overshadowed the respect and awe prickling at the back of his mind when she swatted the rock aside like it was an errant piece of paper drifting on the wind. Her foot hit the ground a second before the rock landed and the earth beneath the bandit army's feet turned smooth as glass. When the rock hit a second later, it bowled over any bandit unfortunate enough to be in its path leaving a bloody mile long streak in its wake. He seethed at the shiver that ran down his spine as her killing intent spiked, in his mind's eye he saw a giant skeletal demon with pink and black bones hover over the army in the same place where his former teammate had stood. The bones cracked and popped with a hollow whistling in time with the beat of his heart, the whistling was slowing down; as was his heart rate, breathing, and thoughts.

 _“Leave or die, I'll hunt down and kill every last one of you who even thinks about going to the capital to take advantage of the innocents.”_ One foolish bandit sauntered forward with a short bark of laughter.

_“Whats yas going to do bout it, Candyfloss-”_

That false sweet smile spread across her face, its what broke him free of the strange spell of her killing intent, but he was arrogant and curious; so he let things unfold. He was too bent on his thirst for power, too blinded by his need for revenge on his brother to resist. Sakura had gone and made herself interesting at the Valley, she'd had a strange concentration of yin chakra shrouding her chakra coils. His sharingan should've been able to predict her movements, it couldn't; he wasn't leaving Snow country without copying her jutsu.

* * *

 _The tremble in her hand was slight as she pulled the kunai from the holster on her leg, she quailed it by concentrating her chakra in her hand before releasing it. Wide slate gray eyes stare unblinking into hers as the life drains out of them. "I did say, leave or die. I guess you choose to die.”_ _In slow motion the scrawny man sways before his body tips backward, his body never touches the blood splattered ground as an itch sweeps up the scars on her left arm and the raging inferno of sizzling chakra washes over her._

_His dark eyes assess her before shifting to her team, she sees it in those dark depths how he's already dismissed them as threats by the time his attention returns to her. He's a little taller than her, his hair is longer and it hangs over his forehead in messy strands, the back is just as messy; it looks good on him. He attire is simple; a loose white shirt with short sleeves and black pants with an apron skit secured with a purple rope. She can't hold back the soft gasp that escapes her, “Sasuke.”_

_“Hello, Sakura.” His voice sends a shiver down her spine and she takes a step back when he rests his hand on the hilt of a weapon strapped across his lower back. “Show me how to perform the jutsu you used to cloud my sharingan's ability to predict your movements when you interrupted me and Naruto, and I'll make your death painless.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jutsu list:  
> Shunshin: Body Flicker, a ninja can move short to long distances at an almost untraceable speed.  
> Chidori: One thousand birds  
> Kuchiyose: Summoning. A ninja summons an animal companion to aid them in battle  
> Raiton: Raikyū: Lightning Release: Lightning ball. User creates balls of lightning and launches them at the enemy. When they hit, they exploded electrocuting and throwing them back.  
> Raiton: Jinraisen: Lightning Release: Thunderclap Arrow. 
> 
> Translation list:  
> Godiame: fifth hokage  
> Tenketsu: chakra points  
> shishou: teacher
> 
> I would love to know which parts you liked and what parts were a little lacking. I'm not going to bite your head off for pointing out what I need to improve on in my writing, but I will not tolerate point blank trolling or being yelled at how Sasuke and Naruto are being bashed or some shit. These are their flaws in Canon and if you don't believe me, go re-read the manga its all there in black and white. 
> 
> [ ** _Remember no one is forcing you to read the end notes, proceed at your own risk..._** ]
> 
> Ino is trying to soothe Sakura by explaining why she feels so strongly about what happened with N&S with what she knows about Sakura's personality when her emotions are so extreme...sounds like some B.S. but its magical friendship B.S. so...yeah... 
> 
> My hope was to convey a more platonic 'disgruntled best friends' vibe with their fight in the hospital, but charged with deeper and far more complicated emotions at the same time. Emotions that are talked about when Naruto drops by before leaving with Jiraiya. They're 12-13 years old in this chapter, Sakura's the only one mature enough to parse those complicated emotions between all three of them, but she isn't sure how to clue Naruto into his feelings and doesn't want to throw a wrench into his thoughts and make everything even more complicated. [ ** _Not to mention, pointing out his crush on Sasuke would make their fight and Naruto's loss...even worse. Also she wants time to get over her crushes on both of them before trying to help her two idiots figure their feelings out. As well as figure out how the hell she feels about Sasuke being a traitor._** ]
> 
> Both Naruto and Sakura were not nice to each other in the academy, she was without a doubt the worst offender between the two of them, but I decided to take the blanket statements from Kishimoto about her being a kind and caring individual and run with it. 
> 
> So she, being a paper ninja or academically inclined, would assist Naruto with homework when he was genuine in asking for her help. As for bringing him a dessert/snack/extra food to school, she notices how he barely has enough food, most times its instant ramen, and does something nice for him. I am also going to stick with the firm belief that she only said those rude as fuck comments about Naruto being an orphan because she's around her crush. [ ** _Which as we all know, some people have foot in mouth disease, awkward rambling, and nervous word vomit when speaking with someone we like.] Basically she panicked and her brain spouted off insecurities, her normal feelings towards her awesome parents simply trying to raise the best human being that they can, and being ignorant to the struggles her two teammates have faced in their tragic childhoods. It doesn't excuse her behavior in the least, but its an explanation._** ] 
> 
> Now reversely, Naruto doesn't know how to take no for an answer and Sakura was well within her rights to reject him as well as smack him when he invaded her personal space without permission. His behavior is not okay, neither is hers, but she never actually tried to touch Sasuke so she gets points for not cross that boundary. Also I can see how Naruto would like the fact that she's not as nice to him because of how much **_HIS_** actions irritated her; not because he had the kyuubi inside him. 
> 
> Sasuke casually says he's going to kill Naruto on a whim in chapter 307 in the manga. So what exactly do you think he's willing to do to Sakura for a way to kill Itachi...if he thinks she's has some jutsu on hand to trick the sharingan. Buckle up, strap in, and get the tissues, things are about to get traumatic and agnsty AF. [ ** _Friendly reminder that this is a soulmate AU and Sakura is alive._** ]


	4. Cause; Affect

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Young Sakura throws serious shade at young Sasuke, goading him into a fight wherein she throws the kitchen sink at him.  
> Older N&S watch on with equal parts horror and dread. Sasuke discovers what he's done to Sakura doesn't just affect him and Naruto.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...this chapter is going to be traumatic for team 7, all I can promise is that I didn't leave it on a cliff hanger. Also I'm not particularly happy about some parts of this chapter, but here it is. 
> 
> I'm going to start doing a 'Chakra reference list' this list will have all of the chakras that Sakura associates to a specific person with her sensor abilities; as well as their killing intent. I will sometimes use how these chakras feel to Sakura in the middle of a fight scene instead of saying 'Sasuke's chakra spiked' or something like that...to show that she's using her senor abilities in the fight. It's how she knows where Sasuke's going to show up when he uses Body Flicker.
> 
> Please ignore any grammatical errors, I'll fix those later. 
> 
> P.S  
> The Jutsu list, and the new chakra reference list, is in the actual chapter itself because my end note rant/explanation is massive. 
> 
> I would love to know which parts you like and what parts were a little lacking. I'm not going to bite your head off for pointing out what I need to improve on in my writing, but I will not tolerate point blank trolling or being yelled at how Sasuke and Naruto are being bashed or some shit. These are their flaws in Canon and if you don't believe me, go re-read the manga its all there in black and white.
> 
> [ ** _Remember no one is forcing you to read the end notes, proceed at your own risk..._** ]

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or its characters. I own only the plots/ideas/situations that I have placed the characters in.** _

* * *

' _What the fuck is he talking about?' Her mind races as the bandit's flee toward the capital. She's devising and discarding strategies one after another to get everyone out of this alive. At the corner of her eye she spots Kiba's sister, Hana and the Haimaru brothers, moving into position. Sakura sees his muscles tense, the weapon's hilt is solid black with a thin white line running down the center. 'If he's here, Oto forces are too. Tell Inuzuka and Kamano to withdraw to the capital, they need to bolster the defenses against Oto forces and the bandits. As for Yamanaka, Scorched Earth; Sundered Sorrow.'_

_“Why do I get the feeling,” She folded her arms and rested her hands atop the experimental elemental chakra conversion and elemental chakra storage seals inscribed in her dad's arm guards,“that you're lying?”_

_“Ha.” His scoff is tinged with disbelief as he sneers. “Look whose acting like a big, bad kunoichi, now that the useless fangirl has found a few brain cells and is wearing a drab chūnin vest. One you cheated your way into receiving, no doubt.”_

_Her fists clench, the thumb, pointer, and middle fingers of her left hand catch on the armor plate's edge for a split second, its all Inner needs.'_ _**Water Release: Spilled Ink** _ _' “We can't all take down a rampaging jinchūriki and avoid open combat with the invading forces. Oh wait, that was Naruto. Remind me, again, what happened to you?”_

 _“You, faced open combat? When? I saw you get pinned to a tree by Gaara's jutsu...unless...no, you couldn't have, you didn't have the chakra for shadow clones or any other clone jutsu. Probably still don't.” He smirks before vanishing from sight, the raging inferno ripples against her tenketsu._ _**'Kawarimi** _ _' The snarling of the Haimaru brothers rend the air as she appears in between Hana and Sasuke. Her hands are cupping her mouth. '_ _**Suiton: Mizurappa** _ _'_

 _A blue-black torrent of water explodes from her mouth, the black swirls like ink and condenses the water into a fist, when the fist hits Sasuke's chest it sends him flying. She spares Inuzuka and Kamano a nod, “I will deal with the traitor.”_

_She pulls on her chakra and a_ _**Shunshin** _ _takes her to her Yamanaka teammate. “I'll stall him for a long as I can,” She thrusts a storage scroll into their hand, “head for the top of the ridge as soon as you finish.”_

 _'_ _ **Kawarimi**_ ' _She blocked his wild slash with her forearm and adheres the blade to her armor plate with her chakra. “Now, now,” She smiled when his attempts to free his sword proved futile and he doesn't seem eager to let go of it. “you're going to need to devote all your attention to me, if you want to learn my jutsu. So put my team out of your head, or else.”_

_“You, have a team!?” His tone drips with venom, the raging inferno begins to cool down. The sensation makes her seals flare and she resists the urge to giggle madly as she nods demurely._

_“Maybe,” She gives into the urge and giggles at him. “if you spent more time learning strategy instead of the coolest ninjutsu like a foolish little boy, you'd have clued in to what true power really is and gotten one step closer to killing a 'certain man'.”_

* * *

His vision had filled with his brother's blood splattered visage when she'd called him foolish. All he could hear was Itachi saying 'Foolish little brother' on repeat in his head. That phrase was one of the first of the triggers his Yamanaka therapist discovered; his brother's _**Tsukuyomi**_ had ingrained over a dozen of them.

He felt the ghostly prickling of rage and hate rise up at the back of his mind, he knew they weren't his true feelings, but his younger self didn't. His gaze shifted from the frozen valley to Inner Sakura, he didn't dare look at Naruto, she had moved even further away from him. The words he wanted to, needed to, speak caught in his throat, but he forced them out even knowing it would be disastrous. 'I'm sorry.'

 _“So am I,_ ” Before he could think of how to ask her what she was apologizing for, she sighs. “ _let's just get on with this._ ”

* * *

_“ **Chidori Nagashi**!” Her seals sucked up the cool tang of lightning chakra that ran through Sasuke's blade, it did nothing for the layer of it smothering the air around them. ' **Chakra Clone**. Inner, focus on keeping the Yamanaka's movements hidden with our earth chakra, go.' _

_With a flick of her wrist she let go of his blade before his chakra overloaded her seals' integrity, at the same time she transformed almost all of her chakra to water chakra and matched it to Sasuke's frequency. Her hands raced through the signs while she kept the cool tang moving around her body. She'd formed the last sign as water shot from her mouth ' **Water Release: Great Waterfall** ' _

_The water swelled into a roiling ball that tore through the air toward him. She ducked the kick he aimed at her back and grabbed his ankle to throw him overhead. '_ _ **Kawarimi**_ _' He was right on her heels, her kick flung him backward and he vanished mid-flight. She re-directed the cool tang of lightning chakra one last time._ ' _ **Raiton: Bakurai**_ _'. She compressed the bolt of blue-white around her left arm and thrust her arm toward her water bullet. 'Are you clear yet?'_

 _The moment water and lighting met her hands formed the rat seal to connect with the yin chakra in the water, '_ _**Water Release: Water Shockwave** _ _' Her left hand caught his wrist as her right hand jabs at his throat. Behind her, the water bullet exploded and splattered to the ground. It rushed back together and coils like a snake before surging forward. He vanishes again._

_Sakura waits and moves when a hot puff of air hits the back of her neck. She drives an elbow into his side and spins, jabbing him in the throat to stun him. As he doubles over, gasping for breath, her kick catches him in the gut sending him flying into the air. Her eyes track his progress, she won't make her move until she gets word from Inner._

_'We're clear, Saku.' She appears above him in the air, her water crackling with electricity behind her, and her heel kick threatens to slice him in half. The water surges passed him and drills into the ground. The whole valley trembled as a pit opened up in the path of her jutsu; the pit was filled with a viscous black liquid._

_Landing in a crouch she gathers fire chakra from her seals, its warmth did not register, her fingers shook when she exhaled,_ ' _ **Katon: Endan**_ _'_

_'The kunai will be in position in four seconds.'_

_'_ _**Kawarimi** _ _' She gathered the last dregs of the stored elemental chakra in her seals and thrust her hands downward at Sasuke. His eyes were bleeding red and black as he loosed a snarl. Her face was blank, her vision filled with her parents bodies, with Naruto's blood, Chōji's thin frame, the holes ripped into Neji's stomach and shoulder, Kiba and Akamaru, Lee, and Shikamaru._

 _“_ _**Fūton: Reppūshō** _ _” Her scream is drowned out by the wind of her jutsu. The explosion's shock wave knocks the air from her lungs and heat licks at her arms and legs before her Yamanaka teammate replaces her with a kunai._

_Sakura is disoriented and winded when the muscles in her left arm spasm. Oppressive rotting wood overwhelmed her senses, she looks up when a shadow falls over her. Purple-gray skin had replaced the stark white, ash gray strands of hair sway in the wind as his wings ride that same wind. He's diving toward the ridge, toward her, she scrambles back, hoping to get away from him. All she feels is the rotting wood closing in, there's no trace of the raging inferno._

_With a single flap of his wings he veers to her left, she follows his path and her blood runs cold when she see's him, holding the Yamanaka up by their neck.“No more games,” The air fills with the chirping of a thousand birds as he raises his right hand. “show me your jutsu or your team loses a member.”_

_'Inner, use the seal on me.'_

_“Okay. I'll show you.” She blocks out Inner's shouts, as she sends the last vestiges of her chakra to Inner to tide her over. 'Saku, no, we haven't been able to get consistent result with them yet.'_

_'I will not let him do this,' She reaches out and connects with the curse mark's chakra. She waits until the last second.'Not again,_ _**Kawarimi** _ _'_

_The taste of copper coats her tongue, she nearly chokes on the blood as she gasps. His chakra fizzles out and the spinning tomoe of his sharingan stutters to a stop. The tomoe become thin black lines, spreading outward to overlap in a breath taking flower pattern. His skin is hot beneath her hand as she grips his elbow. She concentrates and matches his yin chakra's frequency to etch her tracking seal under his very skin._

_She's struggling to breathe by the time she finishes and slumps over his arm. “W-Well,” Blood dribbles from her chin to splatter onto his pale skin, staining it red. “are you going t-to pull your hand out or what, y-you f-fucking traitor.”_

_“Tell me what jutsu you're using,” Her vision goes black as his right hand pushes deeper into her chest, her heart skips a beat when his left hand closes around her neck. “or I'll slaughter the Pig-”_

_“-Sakura!” Ino's growl cuts him off. Her hands form a sign unique to her clan. “_ _**Shinranshin**_ _. Put her down, gently, you piece of shit. Don't look at me either.”_

_She smiles sweetly at him as he tries to fight off Ino's control over his nervous system. The blackness gets worse as it overtakes her sight and right before giving into it, says, “I-I think you'll find, that she's no easy p-prey. Especially since I softened you u-up, first.”_

* * *

“You fucking bastard!” Naruto's shout echos across the valley and a mass of Kurama's dense chakra crushes him under its weight. He braces for impact, but instead shakes off disorientation and stares at the expanse of Inner Sakura's back.

“Get out of my way, I need to kill him for what he's done to you.”

“ _Naru, he wasn't himself._ ”

“Don't make excuses for him. He hurt you.” Blood red eyes skewer him over her shoulder, the whisker marks on his cheeks are thicker, his K'9's peek out from his upper lip.

“ _So have you._ ” She holds up a hand to silence his protests, “ _Maybe not in the same ways as Sasu, but you have._ ”

Inner Sakura ruffles golden hair. “ _You made up for it with letters delivered by Mr. Kōsuke, but it still hurt when you left us behind. Being Kurama's container forced you to leave the village to stay out of Akasuki's grasp. The situation was beyond your control. Its the same with Sasu. He was broken over and over again by Itachi's **Tsukuyomi** when he massacre his entire clan, than the curse mark, than Itachi again, and than he defected to Orochimaru; there's no telling what that snake did to him. No one can handle that kind of mental torture without being driven mad._”

“That's bullshit, he was in control of himself!”

“ _Naru, his brother brainwashed him to seek power and murder him so he could be absolved of massacring his clan. He was never in control of his actions until his brother died._ ” Her tone is firm, but gentle as she pulls him in for a hug. Sasuke suspects she needs the comfort as much as his idiot does. Its not easy watching them, his respect for Sakura sky rockets as he has no idea how she does this around him and Naruto all the time.

“So that makes what he's done to you okay?”

“ _Not in the slightest. It doesn't make it easier to be around him either, but I can't hate him for something beyond his control. He was just as much of a victim as the both of us were to his actions. He has to live with everything he's done to both of his soulmates._ ” Naruto pulls away and scowls in his direction before those blues soften.

“Why didn't you tell me about this?” Tears streamed down his face as he chokes on hysterical laughter. “Sage's Horns, I feel like an unmitigated asshole, for every time I bugged you to hang out with him more.”

“ _Would you have believed me?_ ”

Naruto winces and rubs the back of his neck as he kicks at the snowy ground. “No, at least not before I watched him almost do it at the Hokage summit in Iron.”

“ _You forgave him for that, didn't you_?” She asks which earns her a solemn nod. Something like hope flutters dangerously in Sasuke's chest, he squashes it back down.

“Its not the same.” He sniffles, still avoiding looking at either of them.

“ _How, because you weren't around to witness it_?”

“I-” He sits heavily on the ground and flops onto his back. He turns he head to look at the frozen image. There's so much blood, its everywhere and there's a pool spreading across the snow beneath the younger Sakura, her gray chūnin vest is drenched, and Sasuke's hand is still in her chest. His eyes shift to Ino, lips twisted in a snarl, tears threatening to spill down her cheeks to wash away flecks of blood, and her blue-green eyes alight with heart wrenching grief; grief so sharp and jagged, he can feel it slicing through his chest. “How are we even a soulmate triad...when only two of us get along well and haven't tried our level best to kill each other?”

“ _You forget that two of us are also as stubborn and bull-headed as they come._ ” Her words startle a laugh out of Naruto. Sasuke can see the bittersweet resignation in her body language, he is struck with the feeling that her next words are lies; he wonders why he's never seen through her lies before now. “ _It will take time, like you said, but we'll all get there; all we have to do is try._ ”

Its because he was never able to view his other soulmate from behind Itachi's haze of genjutsu. She was always this pink haired weakling, simpering and fawning over him like the rest of the sheep. He fixated on her after the Valley when she displayed her power by keeping him from Naruto. His eyes shifted from Inner Sakura to the frozen image, to the image that haunted his sleep every night after starting therapy, the image he buried and lied to Orochimaru about. He made up some Naruto level bullshit about what awakened his Mangekyō sharingan; it was the first and only time Naruto's _ **Talk**_ jutsu worked for him.

“Sas,” Like a moth to a flame, he moves closer to his idiot. When he's no more than a foot away, Naruto jumps up and punches his right shoulder, he stumbles back. “you're still a fucking bastard, but you're mine for better or worse. We're just gonna be at worse for the nebulous future.”

“Like sleeping on the couch worse or crash at Sai's worse?” The hope swells up and lodges in his chest when Naruto's face contorts in horror.

“The first one,” He's pulled into a bone crushing hug, “Mr. Fake Smile will tell Mr. Scary Ghost Face and they'll murder you for real. Cause they favor Sakura over us, Sage knows why.”

He nodded before glancing at Inner Sakura, she was sporting a smug grin and waved at the two of them. Naruto was plastered to him and babbling away. “ _Told you._ ”

'Only because you talked sense into him.' He says, starting to hate how jealous he's feeling about her and Naruto's friendship. 'I never could.'

“ _Well, now you'll have the chance to learn._ ” He doesn't say anything else, as she peels Naruto off of him and shoves him back to the ground. He takes the hint and sits down. She sits on Naruto's other side and practically drapes herself over him. He pretends it doesn't bother him, but from Inner Sakura's knowing look, she knew it would. 

* * *

  _ **Inner Sakura**_  

* * *

_She kept a tight grip on her chakra and their seal's scroll as she waited for Ino to get him away from Saku. It was agonizing to watch him lower Saku to the ground before Ino ordered him to remove his hand. Her thoughts were torn about that. On the one hand, she wanted to kick him off the ridge and get him as far away from Saku as she could and on the other hand, Saku would bleed out faster once he removed his hand._

_The moment he did, Ino pushed even more chakra through her tenketsu. His chakra flared in time with hers. Her hands were trembling, but her gaze was steady as she snarled. “Perform the **Shunshin** with as much of your chakra as you can.”_

_“ **Shunshin** ” Inner tracks his trajectory with some of her chakra and is impressed with his speed and dismayed by his chakra reserves. With as much chakra as he used, he's already at Snow country's border; at their edge of sensing range. _

_Ino rushes to Saku's still form, collapsing to her knees and lays a hand over the hole in Saku's chest. Her left hand forms a short string of half-hand signs. “ **Body-Mind Pain Transfer** ” _

_Inner inhales sharply when she feels the burst of malevolence sweep through Sasuke. His chakra fluctuates as he slams face first into a tree and collapses in heap at its base. As soon as she feels his chakra settle down, she bolts over to Saku's side and thrusts the first tag at Ino. “Medical stasis seal, place this one over her heart.”_

_She is impressed when Ino swallows back her questions to focus on keeping Saku alive. Its hard on a good day to be separated, but this time was the worst of them all. They've been operating at sixty percent capacity ever since beginning to store chakra into their strength of a Hundred seal; they'd be dead weight without their chakra control and their fūinjutsu._

_“How does it work?” Ino asks as she accepted the next tag Inner hands to her._

_“The first half of the seal is split into several smaller s-seals,” Her voice breaks and she inhales, there's a trickle of chakra keeping their connection open, Saku is screaming. She wants to follow the chakra back and shield her from the pain. Saku would never forgive her, if she abandons her team and Snow's capital to Oto's forces. “one for each of the body's systems affected by the injury or injuries. The second half of the seal is a modified interlocking seal matrix with the sturdy structure of a storage scroll to keep the first half of the seal in sync and allowing the two halves of the seal to keep its integrity. However, you'll need to use medical chakra to seal, Saku inside it and will need to regularly infuse it with medical chakra.”_

_“Which is impossible for anyone, but her.” The 'I'm not a med-nin' is left unsaid as the last seal is placed._

_“I'm going to need an infusion of Yin chakra before you take the medic pill to keep my Restraint alive throughout the rest of the mission.”_

_“Medic pill...? Your Restraint...? Your that Inner Forehead who,” Ino's hand is gripping her wrist, tall grass brushes her skin and the taste of honey fills her mouth. “kicked my ass during the preliminaries. Are you some kind of bloodline, then?”_

_“We have to keep up with our Snapdragon, somehow.” Inner said before extracting her hand from Ino's grip and tossing a bottle of pills at her._

_An incredulous expression washes over Ino's face, she narrowly avoids getting hit in the face with said bottle as her hand shoots up to catch it. “Your Snapdragon?”_

_She steps past Ino to kneel next to Saku and begins removing her vest, arm and shin guards, headband, weapon pouches, and all four kunai holsters; thirteen less things to waste her chakra pool on maintaining. After strapping on everything, she uses a small portion of chakra to enlarge the scroll to its full size and unrolls the other half of the medical stasis seal on the cleanest patch of snow she can find and carefully gathers Saku into her arms. Inner can't help the grimace as the screaming intensifies through their connection.'I know, I know, you'll be in the other half soon, Saku.'_

_“Deceptive and graceful.” She whispers, setting Saku down on the giant dark green kanji inscribed across the entire length of the unrolled scroll. Inner hears the crunch of snow as Ino moves closer, and can already feel the ingested pill going to work in her tenketsu. “She wouldn't let it happen again. We-”_

_“-if you tell Shika about this...bloodline of yours, Inner Forehead. Can I be there? To rub it in his face that I was right? Wow, these pills are weird.” She steps back to let Ino seal Saku away, despite the looming uncertainty and the sudden blackness on the other side of their link, she smiles at what their Snapdragon is trying to do. Always protecting her, always comforting, and always the safest they've felt around another person besides their parents._

_“We wouldn't dream of denying you the chance to gloat that you got one over on Shika.” Her smile morphs into a frown and she hesitates, debating on whether or not to ask, unfortunately Ino smells blood in the water._

_“He's seems to think,” Inner is wary when she spots that devil may care grin on her face, “that you're,” Ino grunts with the effort to lift the scroll and secure it to her back. When the scroll is secure and Ino begins to pace along the ridge's edge, testing its affect on her balance, she finishes with.“his half-sister. He's been agonizing with the decision to approach you and start teaching you the Nara clan jutsus for the past eight months.”_

_“Oh, well, that's not as bad as I was expecting.”_

_“What were you expecting?”_

_“That he was leading a one man witch hunt for a Nara clan member illegally testing an experimental shadow possession clone jutsu...but its gone awry and I hijacked and or devoured his clan member's chakra and he's researching a way to forcibly separate said chakras.”_

_“That's...” While Ino's mouth opened and closed, she felt a faint flicker of amusement from Saku. Her body went boneless and if not for Ino moving forward to grab her arm, she'd have hit the ground. “what he thought at first, but I managed to talk him down. Are you alright?”_

_“It worked, she's alive.”_

_“What. The. Fuck. Inner Forehead.”The grip on her arm tightened and she pried Ino's fingers off of her, or she'd suffer chakra burns. “Are you telling me the seal wasn't finished.”_

_“Of course it is, we just weren't sure if the medic pills would work. Inner Kizashi and Kiz were experimenting with our clan's Chakra impression seals. He'd managed to leave behind a permanent one of Inner Kizashi, just in case one of their ANBU missions went south before Saku discovered the Haruno bloodline and needed guidance. In his notes he was close to a breakthrough with an edible version of the seal, with the intent to temporarily give someone an impression of his Inner and could possibly form a chakra clone. He was aiming for a way to give Saku's mom instant back up when they were separated on missions._

_Saku memorized all of his notes before burning everything. We spent two months re-working his alterations and succeeded in creating an edible version of the impression seals. Saku figured out away to give someone an impression of her chakra control and how to make medical chakra with that control.”_

_“Is this the first field test?” Ino's tone is a little less intense as she drags Inner along behind her and toward the hiking trail through the mountains.“And what good is having a working seal when no one can use it properly? You really don't have a brain behind that giant forehead do you?”_

_Inner's brow twitched as Ino's words washed over her. “If she'd have known you'd give us the third degree for saving you, she wouldn't have, you ungrateful swine! Would it kill you to say thank you?”_

_“She should have let him do it to me, instead of pinning her hopes on untested fūinjutsu, but you know what?” Ino spun around tears streamed down her face. “You're right, it would kill me to thank you, but thank you for making me watch the girl I'm in love with almost die for me-”_

_Inner saw Ino's panic and moved. Ino struggled, but Inner had wrestled with her before and pulled Ino into her arms. Her heart constricted when their Yamanaka let out a wail. Each sob ripped through Inner and into her link with Saku. “-I t-though he had...killed you.”_

_“He didn't. We're here.” Her grip on Ino tightened and she tried to shoulder the weight of her emotions like she would for Saku._

_“Kura I was so scared I'd lost you. I don't even care he and Naruto might be your soulmates; I resigned myself to just being your best friend a long time ago, I can do that. I can settle for having you in my life in only a platonic way, but death is something I can't do. I c-can't.”_

_“Neither can we.”_

* * *

He tears his eyes away from the scene. Now he understood why Ino had chased him across the village spewing fire and raining metal down on him when he approached her about taking him on as a patient. Yet, Ino hadn't begrudged the clansmen who accepted his case nor did her clansmen act unprofessionally toward him; surely they'd known about Ino's feelings, had to know about what he almost took from their future clan head.

Sasuke's eyes inevitably land on Inner Sakura, who was comforting an upset Naruto; they were at worse and Naruto was still raw from earlier, so he let her handle his idiot. He didn't think his respect for Sakura could get any deeper, he was wrong. She said she couldn't hate him for things beyond his control, he wishes she did hate him. Hate was something he was intimately familiar with, but anything else and he was helpless.

A hand landing on his arm makes him jump and he's trying to move away when the temperature or lack of one, halts his motions. He looks down, the hand is black with a white outline and he stops breathing.

“ _Its okay_.” He flinches, but doesn't, can't move, when her other hand lands on his other arm. She's crouched in front of him with a small smile on her lips; this one is genuine. He feels like a wretched flea ridden cur. “ _I don't hate you, and I don't blame you for trying to kill me eith-_ ”

“-no its not okay!” He hisses and moves to swipe at his eyes with a hand, she let's that arm go. She makes no move to let go of his other arm, he hates the way it eases his distress when she doesn't pull away entirely. At the back of his mind, he knows, if this wasn't Inner Sakura...Sakura would've made herself scarce the second he raised his voice.

“You should hate me, you should blame me too!” He hiccups as his hands form a sign, he wasn't going to go far, but he needed to get away from her. _'_ _ **Shunshin**_ _'_

 _“_ I still did those things, I was fully aware of what I was doing and I did them wearing a smile!” He sees the blankness slam into place on Inner Sakura's face. Naruto is eerily silent and his blue eyes glimmer with ominous shadows. He waves at Ino sobbing in Inner Sakura's arms, “It's like Sakura said, I let his curse mark in and I let Itachi's _**Tsukuyomi**_ drive my actions.”

“ _You were a boy being preyed on by powerful men. Whom cared little for collateral damage._ ” She stalks over to him, getting into his face. “ _I'm that damage, Saku is that damage, Naru is that damage, the retrieval team, Ino, our parents, Itachi, and every one else whose been effected by their actions._ ”

Her hands settle on his shoulders, her grip is painful. “ _You were the most affected by those actions. I can't hate you for being broken. Saku doesn't hate you. All our fights after this one, those are on her, just as much as they are on you. She was keeping her promise to Naru._ ”

“How the the fuck is letting him try to kill you, keeping that promise?!” His words echo like thunder. The hairs on the back of Sasuke's neck stand on end, the chilly air is replaced with cloying warmth as if, a thunderstorm is rolling in. Naruto's blue eyes are darkening with each passing second.

His body moves to stand in between Inner Sakura and Naruto's rage, he knows the lions share of it, is for him; just as Sakura won't let his actions destroy his relationship with Naruto, he refuses to let hers destroy her friendship with her idiot.

“Don't you dare take your anger at me, out on her.” His hands are shaking and his eyes burn as blood rolls down his cheeks. The images of the times they clashed fill his vision; all the times she outsmarted him when he had her on the ropes, they way she disregarded her own safety for her current team, and how she goaded him into fighting her whenever they crossed paths. He roars into the sky, cursing his weak will, his choices, and Sakura's too kind heart. “Sage's shakujō, she was selling her S-ranked deep undercover mission by standing in between me and any Konoha shinobi I ever tried to hurt. She did all of it, for you!”

“ _Not just him, I did it for myself too. I care about you, about the sweet little boy my parents rescued from a team of Kumo infiltrators. Mom got you away from them and Inner Kizashi brought you to the house. Thrust you at me and told me to go to the hiding tree and wait. You stayed with us for a week. I didn't know your name until the academy, but I was too shy to talk to you. And you never talked to me, I figured you didn't remember me._ ” He hears the bone deep exhaustion in her tone. “ _I wanted that little boy to have a future with his blonde idiot. I fought for that future after I learned of Itachi's innocence and Shimura Danzō's role in orchestrating the massacre._ ”

* * *

_**Jutsu List & Chakra Reference List  
** _

* * *

_**Water Release: Spilled Ink**_ : I took the Water Characters jutsu, the one that lets you spell out messages with water, and gave it a cool name.

 _ **Kawarimi**_ : Substitution

 _ **Shunshin**_ : Body flicker

 _ **Suiton: Mizurappa: Water Release: Wild Water Wav**_ e – water gushes from the user's mouth and washes away the enemy.

 _ **Chidori Nagashi**_ : Lightning Current

 _ **Tsukuyomi**_ : Moon Reader – Does a whole lot of physiological damage in a fraction of a second on the victims trapped within the powerful genjutsu. Which allows the user to imprint sub-conscious triggers into the victim to later carry out the user's will when triggered. These triggers can also force a victim to follow certain behavioral patterns that fall in line with the imprinted triggers. These triggers can only be removed by the user who imprinted them.

 _ **Water Release: Great Waterfall**_ – creates a massive surge of water that rises up dozens of feet and cascades to the ground like waterfall. Can be used as a projectile.

 _ **Raiton: Bakurai: Lightning Release: Depth Charge**_ – the user shrouds themselves with lightning chakra and inflicts damaged through direct touch or by flinging a powerful bolt of lighting from any part of their body.

 _ **Water Release: Water Shockwave**_ – makes a spiraling vortex of water that explodes into a wave, the user can control this wave's direction with hand movements.

 _ **Katon: Endan: Fire Release: Flame Bullet**_ – a ball of fire is expelled from the user's mouth.

 _ **Fūton: Reppūshō: Wind Release: Gale Palm**_ – the user can increase their velocity with the jutsu or create compress and transform the wind into a powerful gale by pressing their hands together, which has enough force to knock an enemy over.

 _ **Shinranshin: Mind Body Disturbance**_  – the user injects their chakra into their target's nervous system and takes total control of them. The control can be exerted over long distances and at close range.

 _ **Body-Mind Pain Transfer**_ – While controlling an enemy with the Shinranshin a Yamanaka can sync their target's pain receptors with another person's, the target's injured teammates, or the Yamanaka's own pain receptors. The jutsu's length and the level of pain transferred can be altered with the amount of chakra used by the Yamanaka to activate the jutsu

 _ **Chakra Impression Seal**_ – the seal allows the user to leave behind a copy of their Inner. The impression will degrade with each use or access of the seal. These impressions are passed down from one Restraint to another.

_**Chakra reference list** _

**Naruto: Blazing ocean. Killing Intent: feels like a thunderstorm's coming down on your head. [When Naruto taps into Kurama's killing intent, it will be visible on Naruto's physical appearance and Kurama's chakra will press down on whoever its directed at. ]**

**Sasuke: Raging Inferno**

**Ino: cut grass/uncut tall grass brushing over skin and honey**

**Orochimaru: Oppressive rotting wood (the smell of rotting wood is where the oppressive bit comes in )**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sakura is a Tokubetsu jōnin, or Toku-Jō for short, in this chapter because she's a medic-nin and specializes in fūinjutsu; she got the promotion when she finished her medical stasis seal. She's in mission mode and is referring to everyone by their last name.  
> So lets talk about the fact that Sakura, tis a fairly good assumption on my part, is only able to utilize about 60% of her chakra during the entirety of Naruto Shippuden. Cause, you know, she completed her Strength of a Hundred seal in the middle of the fourth shinobi world war. What that means is, she was at a disadvantage in every SINGLE fight she actually did something in. Which means, when she was fighting Sasori with Chiyo's assistance, she couldn't use all of her chakra. Its a damn shame that no one's recognizes that. Or every time she healed someone or was running low on chakra.  
> Speaking of chakra control, why yes, Sakura has created two revolutionary seals allowing her to store and convert elemental chakra to perform chakra intensive elemental jutsu with. The only reason she can use these seals is because of her chakra control. 
> 
> Theory time: Why don't all ninjas with low levels of chakra use seals to store chakra...likely because they have to store it inside something with a pulse or create a massively complex sealing array to hold all that chakra. Quite possibly they don't have the required chakra control to harness and use the released chakra in the instant upon its release from the storage seal; primarily why chakra storage seals fail because you have to use the chakra right away once its free. Where as Sakura, having extremely great chakra control [its the only thing Kishi gave her, not that he does anything with it, so I'm gonna use the shit out of it to make her the character she was supposed to be!!!] and her nifty chakra Immersion technique, can do that.
> 
> Sakura invented an S-ranked ninja tool, she just made her clan's chakra impression seal eatable...or her Medic pills. Because why the hell not? If N&S get specialized bullshit god mod power ups, why can't Sakura work her ass off and complete her dad's experimental fūinjutsu within the boundaries of canonical Naruto lore. [Every thing is possible with fūinjutsu! Nothing and no one can tell me otherwise, not even Kishimoto himself or the Uzumaki who invented the art of fūinjutsu.]
> 
> No, Sakura did not just invent a performance enhancer, for all the wily ninja out there; she's lying about what the pills do, she's giving them a temporary chakra impression of Inner Sakura. As soon as they use up enough of their Yin chakra, the seal's integrity is broken and it wears off. Also the pills side effects are the same as the separation's effects experienced by Sakura when she makes a Chakra clone.
> 
> Here's the nitty gritty, Sakura is incapable of hating Canon!Sauce, so in keeping with that line of thought...I'm going down the road of 'Sauce was brainwashed by Itachi's Tsukuyomi on the night of the massacre and his left behind sub-conscious suggestions were exacerbated by Orochimaru's curse mark, and whatever that did to Sauce was further distorted by Itachi when he gave Sauce a refresher course during the search for Tsunade arc'.
> 
> The above does not mean that Sakura has completely forgiven Sauce for his shit nor does that mean that Sauce has forgiven himself for what he's done, not only to Sakura, but what its done to Naruto by extension. This also does not mean that Sakura didn't have a hand in traumatizing Sasuke by trying to pave the way for him to return after he kills his brother, she did and acknowledges it. [As they say 'the road to hell is paved with good intentions']
> 
> Nobody is blameless for the trauma that SasSakuNaru have given to each other. Though Naruto is squeaky clean compared to Sakura and Sauce. [Naruto is also a hypocrite when he gets angry at Sakura for trying to kill Sasuke when he's threatened to break every bone in his body and drag him back to the village. As well as their numerous attempts to murder each other throughout the manga and anime...but of course, Naruto is ninja Jesus and can do no wrong and was only trying to stop Sauce from doing bad things...]
> 
> Yes, Mr. Scary Ghost Face is referring to Yamato.   
> Please keep in mind that Naruto and Sauce are dealing with Inner Sakura whom is basically Sakura's sub-conscious mind given form through her clan's bloodline. So, sub-consciously Inner Sakura has accepted Sauce has been brainwashed and isn't on the hook for half of the shit he did to her. That isn't to say Sakura has been able to accept that information consciously nor has Inner been able to curb her passive aggressive actions with Sauce. [ ~~He's done a lot of shit to them out of a selfish desire to kill his brother~~  You know, what? I'm going to blame all of this emotional scarring on Itachi, Orochimaru, Danzō, Obito, and Madara.]


	5. Fallout, New Perspectives, and Outrage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Young Inner Sakura and Sakura explain themselves to an irate Shikamaru about their bloodline. Meanwhile older N&S argue about whose been more cruel to their third soulmate and nether one are pulling their punches.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Its been two weeks since the last chapter, oops. Here's a longer than normal chapter for ya to enjoy.
> 
> Please ignore any grammatical errors, I will fix those later.

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or its characters. I own only the plots/ideas/situations that I have placed the characters in.** _

* * *

The pressure in the air disappears so fast, he's light-headed, but he see's the anger, love, hurt, and questions fighting a war in Naruto's blue eyes as they flick from him to Inner Sakura. With effort Naruto looks away from them both and strides toward the ridge's edge. “I need a moment to clear my head.”

His eye burns as blood drips from the corner anew, his idiot's thoughtful gesture and learning that Sakura was protecting him every time they fought...was too much. The weight of his poor decisions settles on his soul as he faces Inner Sakura.

“I remembered that whole week when I activated my sharingan during the wave mission,” He kept his voice soft, he was never going to yell at her ever again, as she stepped back, afraid of what he was going to say. “I used those memories as a buffer between the influence of Orochimaru's curse mark and my yin chakra during my fight with him. My Yamanaka therapist is teaching me how to use them as anchors to my real feelings for when Itachi's brainwashing is triggered.”

He wants to pump his fist in victory, he settles for a small grin, when he sees her defensive posture relax. “They are among my most treasured memories and I bring flowers to your parents graves on the same day they saved me. You shouldn't blame yourself for any of the fights you goaded me into, you were protecting me, thank you.”

Sasuke doesn't wait for her to say something and turns to join Naruto at the ridge's edge. He is ready to face the next memory, his soul a little lighter than before, but he's fully aware it may be too little, too late for them.

* * *

_**Inner Sakura** _

* * *

_The smell of antiseptic soap and bacon hung thick in Saku's hospital room she gave Raidō and Genma the stink eye when they brought lunch to Ino, Shikamaru, and Chōji, it being their weird Kumo food; she liked bacon, but those two were obsessed. It worked to get a few chuckles from the pair as Raidō gave her an infusion of chakra and Genma went as far as a pat on the head before they left on a mission. Leaving her at the mercy of a Nara's curiosity, Saku's best friend who was in love with her, and her cooking buddy._

_With a wariness in her movements, she stepped out from behind the privacy curtains and methodically placed their clan's privacy seals around the room. When she straightened from placing the last one, Ino was there, an expectant look on her face, she quietly waved for Ino to proceed. As soon as the seals lit up, she sat on the ground and wasn't surprised when Ino joined her._

_To his credit, Shikamaru waited until they were comfy and than, “Don't tell me you're a part of Sakura's bloodline.”_

_“Okay, I won't.”_

_“Troublesome.”_

_“Ha, take that Shika,” Ino stuck out her tongue and blew a raspberry at him. “I was right about it the whole time.”_

_In response, Shikamaru groaned, “What a drag.”_

_“What exactly does her...your...the bloodline do?” Chōji flushed when she glanced up at him. Ino and Shikamaru fall silent to wait for her answer._

_“I'm a yin chakra construct of Saku's sub-conscious mind, Chō.” Her tone is gentle, they'd spent a lot of time swapping recipes and trying to do something about the Sage awful taste of solider pills since the disastrous Retrieval mission; Saku made good on her promise to get to know him. “You can call me Inner Sakura and refer to Saku as her. I won't be offended neither will she.”_

_“Well?” She made a mental note about how impatient Naras get when answers are lacking surrounding mysteries that have piqued their curiosity . “What are your capabilities, what can you do, how are you still here, and how exactly does the bloodline work?”_

_“I can use any and all jutsu Saku can, as well as chakra based techniques; tree climbing, water walking, sensory enhancement, and utilize Saku's close proximity chakra sensing. When I've been granted access to her chakra reserves through **Restraint Release** I can aid her in battle with supplementary jutsu through the use of **Inner Control**. Its the ultimate form of yin-yang release. **Inner Control** allows us to create chakra constructs outside of our mind. These constructs are nigh indestructible, and like a bijū's chakra, they can be transformed at will, and are chakra intensive as they require both Yin and Yang chakra. Saku can be absorbed completely inside of them to give them extra stability and imbue them with elemental chakra; she can also emerge from an point of the construct to perform other jutsu or clobber someone over the head. I protect Saku from, emotional, and minor to moderate physical pain, genjutsu, Yamanaka mind jutsu, physiological torture, I help with sensory perception, and I aid her in performing jutsu silently by either concentrating our chakra or performing the hand signs._

_At the moment I'm a chakra clone and my chakra pool is separate from Saku's chakra reserves, as long as I receive infusions of chakra, I could stay separate from Saku indefinitely. However, the longer I'm separated the more dangerous and painful it will be for our re-integration.” She says, slumping against Ino's shoulder. Inner shivers as the room's temperature drops and Shikamaru's shadow darkens._

_“I suppose,” His voice oozes a sinister malice as he peers down at them from his seat. “the rest of my inquiry, is clan secrets?”_

_'Inner, he's in protective brother mode.' Saku's voice was weaker than usual and tinged with pain._

_“Yep. You should curb your killing intent.”_

_“Oh? Why's that?”_

_“Saku is overly sensitive to it right now and you're hurting her.” Her words cut like razors as his eyes snapped to Saku's sleeping form and than back to her. A moment later, his killing intent vanished._

_“You can communicate with her?”_

_“I'm her sub-conscious and she is unconscious, so yeah, I can.” She holds a hand up to silence his questions and, “She's strong enough to talk to me more than once a day, and she's stopped screaming every time the nurses change her bandages. Once she's recovered enough, I'll rejoin with her.”_

_“Why not now?” Chōji cuts in before Shikamaru can continue with his interrogation._

_“The strain to her brain's tenketsu will kill her. We've been separated for a week, our limit was two days. When we re-integrate after a separation, I am essentially a foreign mass of chakra invading her coils, she has to be awake enough to keep feeding her strength of a hundred seal and coat her brain's coils with yang chakra to survive. And because of what that fucking traitor almost did, she won't be stable enough for at least another week.”_

_The room fell silent at her words, Ino tenses at the mention of the Uchiha, and she leans even more into Ino. “She'll need someone with a balanced chakra system to maintain skin contact to help with the re-integration...and since you share her elemental chakra types and Saku's the most familiar with your chakra expect Hokage-sama to approach you about being here.”_

_“Thanks Inner Forehead.” Ino's nod jostles her, a moment later and she squawks when she topples to the ground. Her eyes flick to the side of Saku's bed where their Snapdragon has resumed her vigil._

_“Chōji.” Shikamaru's voice brims with that same sinister malice. Chōji's gaze slides from Shikamaru to Ino and Saku to her and than back to Shikamaru, he nods._

_'This should be fun.' Inner can't help but to agree with Saku as she wistfully watches Chōji moving to join Ino by Saku's bedside._

_“Can you modify the range of the privacy seals?”_

_“Here.” She waves a modifier tag at him, she refrains from growling when he raises a brow at her, but doesn't move to take the tag. “Unless you want to give me some yin chakra, you'll need to place this and activate it.”_

_The moment the tag flares to life, his shadow shot forward and ensnared hers. She pulses her chakra pool and smiles sweetly at his astounded expression; she broke his clan's **Shadow Possession**. Her grin is still firmly in place as she sits up and pats the space next to her. “From the moment I was born, I was and am the strongest yin chakra construct Saku will ever make, no Nara will ever be able to hold Saku or me.” _

_His motions are stilted and slow as he sits down next to her. As soon as he's settled she leans into him, he freezes. She feels the soft feather light whisper of shadows dancing around a roomful of flickering candles. Her smile slowly loses the harsh saccharine edges, morphing into a genuine small smile for Ino's shadow-user. His muscles are taut, his fingers are tapping against the ground, and his shadow moves in time with his finger tips._

_“I want to know,” The soft whispering of shadows loses its warmth, she plunges into a dark dank cellar; the shadows blocking out all light. “I need to know, if she has a chance. If the answer is no, you need to stop stringing her along.”_

_“I'm Bi, Shikamaru. Well...pansexual, but I prefer the term Bi because it was my life line when I was scrambling to figure out what hell was wrong with me.” She let's Saku's bitter laughter escape her, once it tapers off she sighs. “It blindside me four months ago when her and Chōji got their field promotions, and she was assigned to my team. When Ino confessed after she sent Uchiha off, it helped get me through the rest of the mission sealed away as I was.”_

_“Am I talking to Sakura?” His eyes pin Inner in place, “Your speech pattern changed.”_

_“Yes.”_

_“So you like Ino?”_

_“Yeah, she's...she's my anchor.”_

_Inner hears the sharp intake of breath from him. Every high-ranking shinobi or anyone assigned to T &I were required to find an anchor. It's a Yamanaka clan tradition developed early in the Waring States Era, it was the major reason why the Nara and Akimichi approached them for an alliance; their clan survived impossible attacks and massacred countless enemies, yet the Yamanaka did not turn into blood thirsty killing machines. And the reason for that, they had anchors; someone they could depend on for unconditional support and tough love. _

_“If she's so important to you, why are you not...?”_

_“My clan is not a shinobi clan, we're merchants who trade in everything, you name it, we've got it. Its what's kept the Haruno safe from Kumo's bloodline theft, power averse cowards who attack and slaughter helpless civilians, and gave my mom's former clan pause in their pursuit of her. Once dad explained to her about the bloodline, she insisted on raising me to be as unassuming as possible. No early ninja training, no pushing me to train hard during the academy, and to respect my future soulmate by not indulging in other romantic partners until I turned 21 and attempted to solidify that bond first.”_

_“That's not realistic, not for shinobi. If your soulmate or soulmates are shinobi, they'll understand.” He sighs, exasperation thick in his tone as the soft whisper of dancing shadows returns._

_“I get that, but it would be a betrayal of my morals. I wouldn't be able to live with myself for hurting or driving away my soulmate because I wasn't willing to wait for them. As for a fellow shinobi, I think they'd be equally hurt by my unwillingness to fight and survive long enough to find out who they are. I am going to live to see my 21 st birthday, Shikamaru, and I'll try to bond with whoever my soulmate is before I will ever hurt someone else by dumping them for my soulmate or soulmates when they come along; let alone one of the few people who made my world a little less dark after my parents died.” _

_“Okay, I can see how getting together with someone else can be even worse. However, do you have to be so tactile with her.” He accompanies his statement by gently trying to extricate himself from her._

_“Ha,” She huffs and digs her elbow into his side, he grunts and goes still. “I'm torn on whether or not to tell her about this; I would thoroughly enjoy watching her kick your ass. I know you know her better than that. Do you honestly think Ino wouldn't tell me when my invasion of her personal space crossed a line?”_

_He has the grace to blush and look anywhere, but at her. “Yeah...I don't want two of my friends to get hurt by your stupid noble morals. I don't want to choose who to side with nor do I want to lose your friendship.”_

_For the first time, in a long time, Inner Sakura and Haruno Sakura are rendered speechless. Sure, Saku and Shikamaru got promoted to chūnin at the same time, they'd even gone on a dozen missions as joint squad leaders, Saku adapted Shikamaru's plans mid-battle and Shikamaru trusted in her intelligence to follow those alterations without question; they'd gotten closer over those missions, but to be considered such a good friend._

_“It would kill me to lose you, her, or Chōji over this, so I'll do my best not to hurt her or her feelings.” She takes a hold of his hand, she knows he's gearing up to be a Negative Nancy and ruin this moment, “You know my two idiots will only have eyes for each other, so even if they are my soulmates, they'll be too happy with each other to bother paying any attention to me.”_

_“If that's the case, they'll be faced with the scorn of three clans. Because like it or not, you've always been an honorary member of our clans since Ino took you under her wing.”_

* * *

He wanted to rip the Nara into pieces for how easy it was for him to reassure and comfort Inner Sakura as she tackled him in a bruising hug, muffling her sobs as she presses her face into his shoulder; Sakura has never been that open around him or Naruto. From the corner of his eye, he saw a flicker of his jealousy mirrored on Naruto's face. Just as quickly as Sasuke's feelings were there, they were gone. He gently nudged Naruto and nodded in Inner Sakura's direction when his idiot glared at him.

Him and Naruto were leaning against the wall on the door's left side and sitting close enough to brush against each other if they moved, their third was seated in the farthest corner of the room; as far away from them as she could be. He was shocked to see Naruto's face remain indifferent and pointedly turned back to the frozen hospital room. “What?”

“You have no right to be jealous of the Nara for being there for Sakura when you weren't, and probably never was, not in the ways that counted." He said, the patented Uchiha disdain dripping from every word.

“Whose fault is that?”

“Mine. I left and I hurt you both in doing so, but you hurt her too. Probably even more than I ever did.” He says, voice soft and his senses open for the dark abyss of carnivorous flowers and the cloying scent of burnt sugar, but Inner Sakura was keeping to herself. “With me she doesn't have to gauge how much I'm going to hurt her with my actions because I've made it quite clear to her about where we stand.

You are supposed to be her friend, her best guy friend, but all you've done is drag her around with us on our dates. You're dense, oblivious, and completely fucking enamored with me that you've stopped caring about her feelings toward me or how she feels around me. She's uncomfortable, she's always armed to the teeth, and she always sits with you in between me and her.”

“You only care about her now that she's potentially going to be bonded to us for the rest of our lives. You've never concerned yourself before with her feelings, makes me wonder...if you're only doing this because I'm angry with you, not because you care about Sakura in any meaningful way.”

The color of the memory lost its vibrancy and faded out to be replaced with blood red, the same red of the sharingan. In the blink of an eye, he was standing in between his two soulmates, his back to Naruto and his dark eyes resting on Inner Sakura's small form, curled into a ball, eyes shut tight. He ignored Naruto's outburst and focused on his other soulmate.

“Shut up, Naruto.” His voice is empty and cold. Naruto persists in his ceaseless prattling about what is going on, and Sasuke visualizes a metal plate screwing itself into place over Naruto's mouth. He waited for a few moments as his chakra bent to his will and silenced Naruto.

“Inner, this isn't _**Tsukuyomi**_ nor is it a jutsu. Its something my family has documented in regards to the Dreaming of Triads. There were cases when an Uchiha's emotions grew so intense during the Dreaming, it causes a memory shift.” 

* * *

  ** _Sasuke_**

* * *

_Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Ping. “Mother fucker!”_

_Sasuke froze mid-stride and didn't dare to breathe, fearing Sakura would pop out from a tree and fawn over him. When several minutes passed and she didn't appear, he loosed a relieved sigh. As he started walking forward he heard the same 'thunk, thunk, thunk,' sound echo from the training grounds.'Is she training? This I've got to see to believe.'_

_As he moved further and further into the trees, the sound repeated over and over again, interspersed with a few 'pings' and a litany of curses; which he was quite impressed by. It certainly sounded like an arduous training session going on. Once he reached the edge of the clearing, he scaled one of the trees and scanned the training grounds for his teammate._

_He spotted her on the surface of the river, ten yards down from the bridge, balancing on a small log. She was covered in sweat, her hair was plastered to the side of her face, mud stained her clothes, her arms and legs were littered with small cuts, but he saw none of it. What he fixated on was the chakra thread she was using to hold several kunai and a single shuriken in the air at once._

_For a small eternity he watched her balance on the log and take deep even breaths. A moment later and she snapped her chakra thread forward. He watched all the weapons sail through the air toward the bridge. Right as the weapons reached the half-way mark, Sakura replaced the shuriken and snatched the kunai from the air, launching them at the log she'd been standing on._

_Thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, ping, splash. He winced in sympathy as she crashed into the river. His heart lodged in his throat when she doesn't resurface after a few minutes._

_The muscles in his legs buzzed with chakra as he leapt off the branch. His impact with the ground barely registered as he sprinted for the bridge. He was half way there when she broke the surface and hoisted herself out of the river._

_“Son of a fucking whore.” She gasped and fell back in._

_He practically flew across the remaining distance, leapt on to the bridge's railing and scanned the water for her. In his haste to locate her, he didn't account for the water on the railing, he felt himself tipping forward. An arm locked around his waist and yanked him back the other way._

_His landing was much softer than he expected. He prayed to the Sage for his rescuer to be anyone, but Naruto or Kakashi-sensei; he'd never live this down. When he looked down, he let out a yelp and scrambled off of Sakura._

_“Thanks. You're heavier than you look, Sasuke.” She said, making no move to get up from where she lay._

_The scathing remark dances on the tip of his tongue, but he swallows it down. She looked beyond exhausted from her training and she wasn't fangirling over him. 'I mean, she never really has fan-girled over me per say.'_

_“Its dangerous to train on your own.”_

_“Its not like you, Kaka-sensei, or Naruto want to train with me, and my parents are on B.O.R missions,” She opens her eyes and looks up at him with the most skeptical expression he's ever seen on anyone before. “if I'd asked you to help me train this morning, would you have agreed to?”_

_“No.”_

_“I figured as much, hence why I'm out here by myself.”_

_Her lackluster concern for her own well-being didn't sit right with him, not only because he could now remember what her family did for him, but the other things he remembered her doing in the academy. Those memories had been an eye opener, but he wasn't sure how to approach her and ask questions about it, considering how much of an asshole he was too her._

_'Fuck it, the curiosity is going to kill me, might as well.'_

_“Why'd you pretend to be one of my fan girls in the academy?” He asked and saw a whole slew of emotions flash through her eyes._

_“I did, and do still, have a crush on you,” Sasuke fights the urge to run away as fast as he can when she drags herself to her feet and leans against the bridge's railing, he stays put as she makes no move to close the distance between them. “even though you're a cold hearted bastard to everyone around you. In the academy I wasn't as mature as I am now, so I may have gone a little overboard pretending.”_

_“Hn.”_

_“You're lucky I recognize that as your inquisitive grunt, mister.” Her laughter is deep and warm when he tries to glare a hole through her head, he thanks the Sage she wasn't prone to giggling around him. “Your fan girls were little more than rabid animals, they tried to hang off of you at every available opportunity, they got up obscenely early to snag the seat next to you, they stalked you, and went out of their way to tear down anyone who said a negative thing about you. The worst part was, I'm the only one who noticed how uncomfortable you were about everything.”_

_He stares at her incredulously. “Pot and Kettle, you're the kettle.”_

_“True, I have done those things too,” The grin on her face was too sweet, too innocent, it utterly terrified him. “but I have never hung off of you, and I pretended to be as rapid as them so I could sabotage them at every turn.”_

_“But, why would you do that for me?” He says flabbergasted, and floored at the warmth he felt for the concern she had for him. How she'd sacrificed her own self-worth to be labeled nothing more than a empty headed fan girl._

_“What they all saw was a brooding, cool, dark, mysterious, and handsome boy; I saw that too. However, I also saw a depressed and lonely boy who survived a tragedy. I saw that you needed a friend, but more than that, you needed protection from a bunch of empty-headed harpies. You had a burgeoning rivalry with Naruto and that counts as a pseudo friendship, so I settled on protecting you from afar.” She shrugs off his searching look and waves to her training log, which was bobbing up and down on top of the water, “Being underestimated by everyone is more than worth having to pretend to be a fan girl. Plus it helped me protect someone who needed it at the same time, it was a win-win situation.”_

_“Well, my chakra is almost gone and I'm hungry enough to eat five bowls of Ichiraku's.” She draws a kunai from her thigh holster and launches it at the river's left bank. Her hands flashes through signs and the kunai is replaced by her training log; the log hit the ground with a faint thump._

_With a flick of her right hand, he sees her create a chakra thread and snag her kunai from the air and pulls it back to her. Sakura snaps the chakra thread, adding more momentum to the kunai. His mouth hangs open when she snatches the blade from the air, spins it by the ring at its base, and tucks it back into its holster before she starts walking across the bridge._

_“You're more than welcome to join me for a friendly dinner,” She throws over her shoulder. “though I understand if you don't want too, good evening Sasuke.”_

_He isn't sure how long he stands there, staring at her back, debating on taking her up on the offer or not. It wasn't like she was expecting him to come, but he liked this side of Sakura and he would lose this opportunity to get to know her; as she would go back to pretending for the first stage of the chūnin exams tomorrow morning._

_“Oi, Sakura” He shouts, and delights in spotting her stumble as she turns to regard him with a disbelieving look on her face. “lets get sushi instead.”_

_Even from this distance he sees the mulish set to her mouth, he smirks and uses chakra to aid his speed. He slows when he reaches her side. “The sushi bar near the compound has the best dango in the elemental countries.”_

_“I'll be the judge of that.” Her tone was hard, but her eyes filled with happiness as she started walking again._

_His lips twitched and as a genuine smile for his pink haired menace of a teammate spread across his face, he let himself daydream of her turning out to be his soulmate. 'So long as she stops pretending to be an empty-headed fangirl, I'd be lucky to have her as my soulmate.'_  

* * *

“Don't you ever,” He hisses as he rounds on Naruto, the red bleeds back into the hospital room of Sakura's memories. “fucking accuse me of not caring about Sakura for my own sake. Yeah, I'm a bastard to everyone and my brother's mind fuckery screwed me over...but the only reason I survived Orochimaru's bullshit cursed mark as it ate away at my mind and body over the years I spent with him,” His arm slashes through the air and he points at Inner Sakura. “is because of her concern and open affection for me. The very same concern and affection I've spurned countless times. I don't deserve it, I know that, but you don't get to be angry with her either because she paved the way for us to be happy together. ”

“This 'concern' of yours stems from the guilt and shame of all the shit things you've done to her laid bare for all and sundry to see. You've never concerned yourself with her feelings before, you fucking prick.” Naruto's blue eyes bore into him, the pressure and heavy humidity return with a vengeance. He refuses to give an inch.

“Neither have you.” He growls, getting into Naruto's face and looming over him. “You're too fucking dense and stupid to see what you're doing. How much you're hurting Sakura. At least I can admit it.”

His idiot's nostrils flare and there's a flash of red in blue when Naruto steps back. Anger shimmers in the air between them. “I changed my mind, you should stay at Mr. Fake Smile's when this is over.”

“Fine, his couch is more comfy anyway.” He stomps over to a corner of the room and sits down, Naruto has slunk to his own corner too, Inner Sakura never moved from hers.

* * *

**_Sakura; Two Months Later_ **

* * *

  _Her hand hovers over the window's frame. It was late and she had two more days of mandatory medical leave. Her breath fogs up the window, she needed to do something before her shishou noticed. She sighed and turned to leave, there was no point telling the Hokage something she already knew._

_With one last glance to the window, she rose from her crouch and moved to the edge of the roof when she felt the blazing ocean of chakra closing in on her. She counted down from five and right as she reached zero, Mr. Kōsuke appeared in front of her.“He sent four scrolls this time; three of 'em are filled with Doton and Suiton jutsus, last one's his usual missive.”_

_Pale yellow eyes stared at her with a mixture of hope and longing as she stowed the scrolls in her vest._

_“If you hurry,” She rolls her eyes as he started bouncing up and down, “Genma and Raidō might be incline to give you a BLT.”_

_He was little more than a red blur leaping across the rooftops by the end of her sentence. She shook her head mumbling about 'bacon loving weirdos' and made to follow after Mr Kōsuke, but stopped when a shadow fell over her._

_“So you and the brat have been communicating?”_

_“Yes shishou.” She answers automatically, knowing it would make things worse if she tried to lie about it._

_“I see.” Her muscles tense when she feels Tsunade's hand land on her shoulder and squeeze, before she's being marched over to the window. “Seeing as you've been haunting my window all night, its only fair I give you a check up to make sure you haven't caught your death out here.”_

_She doesn't bother protesting and climbs through the window, thankful Tsunade didn't pick her up by her vest and carry her inside like some wayward stray cat; the one time she did was the most mortified she'd ever felt in her life. Once inside she's steered over to the couch and pushed onto it. Wet wood and crisp air pervaded her senses, Tsunade's chakra was a pleasant contrast to her hard exterior._

_“How are our idiots then?”_

_“Alive and well I imagine, or as well as one can be when a bunch of power hungry assholes are trying to kill you.” Tsunade raises a brow and tapped a little too hard over the new scar tissue. “About two months ago, Pervy Sage got them kicked out of Hot Spring country.”_

_Tsunade snorts and steps back, satisfied with her results. “More like kicked him out because he was already slammed with a life long ban. Cut the bullshit, why isn't an angry blonde jinchūriki rampaging around the elemental countries?”_

_“I haven't told him about my run in with...Sasuke.” Her voice is softer than usual as she says his name for the first time since his defection a year ago._

_“So, you've forgiven him then?” Tsunade's tone is absent of emotion, but Sakura knows her shishou pretty well._

_“No.”_

_The silence is charged between them. They'd been butting heads over the issue of Uchiha Sasuke the traitor vs. Uchiha Sasuke undercover assassin, for a while. After a few more moments Tsunade sighs out, “What changed?”_

_“A week ago I was approached by Elder Shimura, he offered me the opportunity to join Root-” She shrank back into the couch cushions when she felt Tsunade's chakra ripple through the air and felt her skin burn. Upon seeing her apprentice's reaction to the killing intent, she stalked over to her shelf of solid metal trinkets and crushed one in her hand; her chakra receded._

_“-I forgot about your current sensitivities, though they seem a bit worse at the moment....” Tsunade shook her head and let it go.“What did you tell him?”_

_“After thanking him for the offer, I informed him I was focusing on finishing my medical studies and wasn't looking to move up the ranks quite yet. As he was leaving I said, I'd keep it in mind for when I was ready to take on more responsibility.”_

_“You know its only a matter of time before he discovers you're in ANBU.”_

_“Right, like any of his agents will be able to pry the knowledge of my shadow rank from you and the division commander. Of course Elder Shimura could come after me directly, but even if he uses his armful of sharingan on me, I'll survive.” She says, slumping further into the couch and closing her eyes._

_“Love the confidence there, kid, but you're going to explain that to me.”_

_Her eyes remain closed as she pats down her vest, looking for the right pocket. When she's found it, she liberates four sealing tags and waves them at Tsunade. “Privacy tags, place them around the sitting area. It will look and sound like you're trying to get me well versed in drinking Sake and drunk as skunk to a casual observer.”_

_“They're in place and active, talk.”_

_“Sasuke attacked me because of my bloodline. He couldn't read my movements when I protected Naruto at the valley.” She couldn't stop seeing him reaching for Naruto, but now, it was Ino clutched in her arms. The heel of her hands dug into her eyes in a vain attempt to try and chase the images away. “After I woke up, and was stable enough, I hunted down my dad's scroll and sent Inner in for answers. My clan's bloodline exists because Haruno Akumei and Kohaku were used to develop the **Tsukuyomi** during the Warring States Era. They survived it by withdrawing most of their chakra into their brains to fight against the genjutsu. The stress to their brain's tenketsu didn't kill them because of the time distortion effect of the jutsu. Thus the main function of the Inner was born; an absolute defense against sharingan based genjutsu; everything else concerning mind defense is an added bonus. Our chakra clone is a yin chakra construct, but our **Restraint Release** grants our Inner's access to our chakra reserves, just by releasing our Inner, the yin chakra obscures our tenketsu; blinding the sharingan's ability to predict our movements.” _

_“Kid, we'll come back around to Danzō in a second, I want to know, how your clan was not wiped out by the Uchiha?”_

_“The twins were a part of Uzumaki Mito's guard. The Uchiha captured them en route to Senju lands, without their sacrifice, your grandmother never would have arrived safely. After the Uchiha responsible for capturing them were finished with their experiments, the twins Inners played possum and tricked the Uchiha. When the Uchiha led them away from the outpost to execute them, Inner Akumei and Kohaku separated from the twins, Restraint and Inner combined forces to decimate the garrisoned Uchiha at the outpost; unfortunately the Uchiha responsible for developing_ _**Tsukuyomi** _ _had left the night before._

_Mito-sama sent the twins back to Uzushio when a patrol found them holed up on the edge of Senju territory. The twins retired from active service and started families, they used their new insights into sharingan genjutsu to create the Haruno clan's genjutsu based fūinjutsu._

_Sometime between the Second and Third wars, the Haruno clan branched out from Uzushio as merchants and one of those branches came to Konoha. My clan was selective about who was informed of our bloodline since its birth; the Uzumaki clan knew, my dad told Minato, and the Hyūga, only because they could see the expanded coils in our brain."_

_She missed seeing Tsunade's shell-shocked expression as it was gone from her face when she opened her eyes. “Anyway, my sensing abilities have improved since the separation was so long. I sensed a jumble of different chakras in Danzō's left arm, but there was an underlying hint of oppressive rotting wood; Orochimaru's chakra. I know,” She waves a hand at seeing Tsunade's face go blank at the mention of her former teammate. “he's been gone for a long time and that's not proof of any wrong doing, but it was suspicious. So I sent Inner after him, she followed him around for the next few days and finally found Root HQ. She didn't storm the place, as much as she wanted to, but created a diversion by recruiting some academy brats to play ninja nearby with genin level flash bang tags._

_Once she made it in, she hunted down any records she could find and swapped them out with a fūinjutsu based genjutsu which tricks the target into seeing what they expect to see, not what is actually there. Currently we're waiting for another opportunity to break in to put the real ones back.”_

_“I'm putting you on hospital rotation for two weeks for this stunt.” Sakura pretends not to hear the mumbled 'boredom's the real enemy to recovering shinobi'._

_“I'm not a Yamanaka, kid. What was in those records?”_

_'She doesn't know?! How does she not know about this? Unless...' She trails off as her mind rifles through what she read from those records and from the records she's had access to after joining ANBU. 'paranoid old bastard used the Hokage death clause to seal all records of the Uchiha Massacre or at least bury them so deep, its impossible for any successors to learn the truth.'_

_“Uchiha Itachi was ordered to massacre his clan to stop a coup by the Sandaime. What's more, all the Uchiha killed that night were taken to Root headquarters and their eyes were extracted. It wasn't all that difficult to connect the dots from there.”_

_“The Hokage's death clause.” Tsunade breathed out through her teeth, hands clenched into fists, and unwavering resolve in the lines of her body. “Bring me those records, as much as I appreciate your memorization skills, I need to make copies and have Mitarashi read them too. If we're going to uproot a time weathered tree, un-earthing the spread of its roots will be the first step.”_

_“Shishou, I'm insulted,” She grins when Tsunade's eyebrow starts twitching as she liberates her favorite pink scroll from her vest. “that you'd think I would leave those records laying around. I wasn't enlisted in ANBU as the Two-Headed Skink because of my bloodline or my dad's service record with them. I earned the right to wear my dad's ANBU mask on my own merits. Not the least of which includes the common sense my teammates lacked.”_

_“Oh reall-”_

_“-I was protecting her. I wouldn't have survived seeing him hurt someone else I care about and I have never shied away from a little pain.” She says, cutting off Tsunade's chastisement, she'd had enough of that from team 10 when she was in her medical coma. “Its nothing compared to what the village has taken from Sasuke.”_

_“I told you, it won't work for him. Those missions need specific requirements, tracked movements, communication from the undercover agent, and regular contact with a handler.”_

_“I tagged him with my tracking seal after taking the hit for Ino. The communication will be through the seal, due to Orochimaru's aptitude for uncovering spies. There's no doubt Sasuke will fixate on me until he figures out how I'm tricking the sharingan.”_

_“You realize, going down this road will give the both of you PTSD after all is said and done?”_

_“He may not have cared about me at all, but I care for him even though he's,” She shrugs helplessly as she tries to grasp for the words to explain how she feels about Uchiha Sasuke; as usual, she can't. “I'll suffer anything for those I care about even a **Chidori** though the chest.”_

_Tsunade holds her apprentice's gaze for a few moments and crumbles in the face of such determination.“Fine, I'll sign off on the damn mission.”_

_“But?”_

_“You're not allowed to die, and it'll be your ass on the line for anything he does to antagonize the other countries...why are you smiling?”_

_“Shishou, I'm a fully trained and extremely competent medic-nin, not to mention the apprentice of the woman who is recognized as the goddess of medical ninjutsu.” The last bit, wasn't true, but Sakura wouldn't stand for her shishou not being recognized for all of her hard work, so she made everyone aware of who to thank for their life when she healed them._

_Her grin threatened to split her face in half when Tsunade's eyes widened minutely, catching on to what she was implying then narrowed, but there was mirth shining in their depth. “Are you sure you're not Shikaku's bastard?”_

* * *

“Seriously,” Naruto exclaims. “how could you not tell me about any of this?!”

As he opens his mouth, Naruto glares at him. “Don't. I may not have been the best friend for the last few months, but I get to be angry at her for not telling me anything about this. I know she had great reasons to keep me in the dark; doesn't make it hurt any less.”

His teeth audibly click when he shuts his mouth. He works hard to curb his desire to not not intercede on Sakura's behalf. Sasuke had seen their friendship, clear as day, when she came back from one of her medical overhauls of the other Hidden villages' medic-nin corps; their closeness was intimidating. To see their friendship being torn apart because of him was agonizing, as he'd taken so much from his soulmates already.

“ _I was protecting you, dumbass. You and Kurama weren't on speaking terms, you almost killed Jiraiya during your training, you would've terrorized whatever poor village or town you were in, and I watched Sasuke almost kill you. No fucking way was I going to give you a new reason to hunt him down before you were strong enough to survive him a second time!_ ” Her voice echos around the Hokage's office.

“I wouldn't have gone after him,” Naruto ploughs over Inner Sakura's scoff. “I would've come to see if you were okay first, then gone to pummel him into the dirt.”

“ _Just like you did at the Hokage summit?_ ”

The silence returns, saturated with Inner Sakura's skepticism and Naruto's hypocrisy, he's crushed under the rising tension between them; it seems the Hokage summit wasn't a shining moment for any of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chakra Reference List: 
> 
> Naruto: Blazing ocean. Killing Intent: feels like a thunderstorm's coming down on your head. [When Naruto taps into Kurama's killing intent, it will be visible on Naruto's physical appearance and Kurama's chakra will press down on whoever its directed at.]  
> Sakura: cloying scent of burnt sugar. Inner Sakura/killing intent, dark abyss filled with carnivorous flowers.  
> Shikamaru: soft and warm, like shadows dancing around a flickering candle flame. Killing intent: a dank cellar with the deepest, darkest shadows blocking out all sources of light.  
> Tsunade: The smell of wet wood and crisp air after a rainstorm. Killing intent: feels like being bathed in acid from her slug summon. 
> 
> B.O.R stands for 'Border outpost re-supply'. Chūnin, jōnin, and ANBU are tasked with delivering supplies to the outposts on Fire Country's border. Usually takes 3-6 months to complete. 
> 
> As far as I'm concerned there are two different divisions of ANBU, visible ANBU or the ones who guard the Hokage and their identities are known to their jōnin comrades. Shadow ANBU like Sakura's parents who remained low-level nin, were easily jōnin level, but no one knew they were in ANBU except for the Hokage and their division commander. Technically Root is a third division, but it went rogue so they don't count.
> 
> [ ** _Remember no one is forcing you to read the end notes, proceed at your own risk..._** ]
> 
> Yeah Sakura's bloodline is pretty fucking awesome, but it has its downsides for prolonged separations on the Restraint. These side affects for the Restraint include: sensitivity to killing intent to the point where it causes pain, persistent low body temperature, extreme disassociation of emotions and thoughts, and the Restraint is highly susceptible to genjutsu and other yin chakra release type jutsus. 
> 
> I headcanon that team 10 requests Sakura gets reassigned to them after the Chūnin exams. Or that Tsunade assigns her to them and while Asuma is off on his S and A rank missions, Shikamaru leads his new team of genin on countless mission until they make chūnin. Part of that headcanon encompasses Sakura's proxy friendships with Shikamaru and Chōji because of her friendship/bitter rivalry with Ino. And yes, he's giving Sakura a shovel talk or something to that effect. 
> 
> The memory shift is a play on the Uchiha clan's curse of hatred and how their sharingan is connected to their emotions. Sasuke is enraged at Naruto for his thoughtless commentary about his rocky friendship/acquaintance with Sakura. It was in the data books [ ** _cause you know, Kishi had only 600 hundred chapters to explain this shit to us..._** ] that Sasuke did, in fact, like Sakura back. And that he appreciated her concern and care for him in part I. So I put my spin on it. 
> 
> Also, if you hadn't noticed, my Sakura is a fucking Slytherin, but she presents herself as a harmless Hufflepuff [ ** _Not that us Hufflepuffs are harmless, cause we're not._** ]. So of course she'll pretend to be a fan girl to help protect her crush from a bunch of rabid harpies, and lay the ground work for everyone to underestimate her during the chūnin exams. 
> 
> Sakura learned the chakra threads from her mom...who hailed from the clan of ninja who founded Suna's puppet master corps...BECAUSE WHY THE FUCK NOT?!! Sakura is related to the sand siblings through their mother, whom would be Sakura's aunt if she was alive. Her and Gaara have eerily similar green eyes, plus Mebuki has the same teal eyes as Temari. [ ** _Yes, I realize this could be merely coincidental. Do I care? No._** ]
> 
> If you didn't catch on to what Sakura was saying to Tsunade at the end of the chapter. She was basically saying: as a medic-nin trained by the legendary goddess of medical ninjutsu Senju Tsunade, the other hidden villages would be stupid to imprison Sakura for Sasuke's crime or crimes, and would more than likely force her to train medics for that village. Its way she's been going around revamping the medic-nin corps for the other villages post 4th shinobi war.
> 
> I would love to know which parts you like and what parts were a little lacking. I'm not going to bite your head off for pointing out what I need to improve on in my writing, but I will not tolerate point blank trolling or being yelled at how Sasuke and Naruto are being bashed or some shit. These are their flaws in Canon and if you don't believe me, go re-read the manga its all there in black and white.


	6. Inclusion; The Last Straw

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Young Sakura is requested as team 10's combat medic. Naruto and Sasuke begin to realize how much they really do not know about Sakura.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure about this chapter...but all of you have been waiting for an update for the last 8 months. So instead of being nitpicky and making you wait longer, here it is. I'm not dead and neither is this story. *Insert wild speculations about my life and the things that prevented this chapter from being written here* Please enjoy.

* * *

  _ **Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or its characters. I own only the plots/situations/ ideas that I have placed the characters in.**_

* * *

“ _By far you're the most punctual of my students.” Her heart leapt into to her throat as she shrieked at the sound of his voice. She formed a half-sign and switched, following Inner's suggestion and had a kunai held underneath a bearded chin. A bubble of heat popped in the lake of lava she hovered over, clutched in the talons of a dragon. “Heh, I can see why they wouldn't stop pestering me to snatch you up for our team.”_

_She leapt off his back and resisted the urge to hide her burning face, she was mortified and wanted nothing more than to die or get swallowed up by the ground. Instead she forces herself to meet her new mentor's gaze. Sakura found nothing, but amusement and warmth in dark brown eyes._

_“You...requested me?” She utters when Inner finishes processing what Asuma had said._

_“Of course I did,” She sees his grin dim and his eyes harden, the dragon's growl reverberates against her ear drums. “I nearly shoved one of my chakra knives down Kakashi's throat when Ino let it slip that you spent two weeks training on your own during the Chūnin Exams until your parents came back from their missions. That irresponsible asshole should have never been given a genin team.”_

_“Thank you?”_

_“You're welcome kid,” The dragon growled lowly as he gestured her over to a training post. “now lets see what you're made of.”_

_“_ _**Doton: Tajū Doryūheki** _ _” Several slabs of rock shot up to form a circle around her. She didn't fight the smile that tugged at the corner of her lips as she leapt forward with chakra buzzing in her fist. The slab shattered into pieces as she flew through the hole, Inner speeding through signs. '_ _**Doton: Gōremu** _ _'_

_A split second before the stone copy of Inner finished forming, she formed a half sign to switch out of the line of fire. Her feet touch down on the tree branch as a surge of heat engulfs the miniature Inner. 'That was Chōji.'_

_'He's been working hard on performing silent jutsu.'_

_Gusts of wind slam into the tree forcing her to jump out of it to avoid getting sliced up. She gathers chakra in her stomach as her hands form the sign to release the seals. Water dribbles out of her mouth as she sees the cloud of shuriken rising to meet her. She narrows her eyes in concentration, debating on whether or not to give them a heads up, her chakra blasts a hole into the tree as she pushes herself high into the air. Her mouth opens wide. '_ _ **Suiton: Teppōdama**_ '

 _Three massive water bullets crack the ground, waves of water shoot straight up as shuriken rain down on Ino, Shikamaru, and Chōji. As one they race through hand signs before thrusting out their palms. “_ _ **Futon: Reppūshō**_ ”

_The deluge of weapons and water scatter in all directions as the wind dies down. The training ground is silent for a few seconds as team ten scans for their opponent. There's a quiet rumble underneath the three chūnin, they lock eyes in horror as the solid ground turns to mud and they start to sink. The chakra in the water from Sakura's earlier jutsu adheres them to the mud, preventing them from escaping. They stop sinking when the mud reaches their necks and hardens around them, rendering them completely immobile._

_“There are a few reasons,” She begins as she rises up from the ground in front of her new team, “why I captured you so easily. One, my familiarity with your clans jutsus', two, my familiarity with your current team strategies, three, when I didn't allow Jōnin Asuma time to press his advantage, four, you let me have breathing room, and five, I'm not the same Sakura you knew in the academy. I strike hard, fast, and with deadly precision to protect those I care about.”_

_“What the hell, Forehead?!” The twinkle in blue-green takes the sing out of the insult._

_“Your K.I is scary.”_

_“What a drag.”_

_“Weren't you all going on and on about wanting her on the team, seriou-”_

_“-its fine Asuma-sensei,” She cuts him off, “guys, my first C-rank turned into an A-rank, I was attacked by a sannin during my chūnin exams, I almost died chasing after Sasuke, and once again almost died because of him. I don't see the point in showboating or being arrogant unless it serves a purpose in neutralizing my enemy.”_

_As Ino works on breaking the three of them free, Shikamaru and Chōji start pestering Asuma with questions about squad leadership. Her eyes meet Ino's. “I'm not use to having a team that doesn't see me as a princess to protect nor one that will take me seriously, but Shikamaru and Ino need to practice their clan jutsu on me.”_

_“Why's that?” There's a faint hint of curiosity and tension in his voice, that screams 'my team'._

_“I kicked Ino out of my head during the Chūnin exams, Shikamaru's clan jutsu don't work on me at all. They'll improve the use of their clan jutsu even if they fail to ensnare me.” She says every bit the professional toku-jō and med-nin assign to the team._

_“What about Chōji?”_

_“I'll be putting him through intensive chakra control exercises and hopefully get him to the point where he can use two thirds less chakra when performing his clans jutsus. I will also help him with mastering silent jutsu as I've always been able to do so since the academy.”_

_“Damn, Forehead,” She shot Ino a blinding grin, “I think you broke sensei.”_

_“T-The next time I see Kakashi, I'm shoving both my chakra knives down his throat.”_

_She took a step back as Asuma moved forward and pulled Chōji the rest of the way out of the hardened mud. It was hard to look on as he proceeded to herd all three of his students to a copse of trees and gesture for them to sit in the shade. They were the close-knit 'team as family' that her mom and dad were always talking about._

_'They're your family now too, Saku.' Inner's whisper was like a kunai to the throat as she shook her head._

_'Not as long as team 7 hasn't been disbanded. There's no way Shishou would take Naruto's happiness away. Neither will I go back on my promise to him.'  
_

* * *

_Sakura,_

_Two weeks._

_Naruto._

_A hiss escaped her mouth as Shikamaru's shadow kunai draws blood. She obliterates the wave of them that follow after it with her newest tag. His wince, and the ones from the peanut gallery, aren't as gratifying as the other times she's tested new tags and seals on him. Sakura avoids his questioning eyes and switches herself with Chōji, wordlessly nominating him for the next round._

_'Saku...what's wrong?' Inner's words drip pride and full blown concern in equal measure, Saku's become scary good at compartmentalizing their emotions in order to master their chakra cloak; it was difficult to get a read on Saku nowadays. Inner is relieved as Saku transforms the chakra around the cut into medical chakra. 'Our idiot's coming back to the village.'_

_If anything, Inner's attempt at reassurance, put her even more on edge. The faint spray of mist passes over Inner, hinting at the entire ocean of negativity her Restraint's been hiding from her._

_'Its not him I'm worried about or going after Sasuke when he wears Shishou down and she let's us go after him. It's-'_

_“-Kura, are you talking to Inner Forehead?”_

_“She gets insistent the more I ignore her.” She shrugs and lets out a sigh when Ino's eyes bore into her. “Yes. I'm talking to myself again, happy?”_

_She sighs again. “Sorry. I'm not going to be any fun today or at all.”_

_“Why not?” Ino's voice is deceptively soft. She shivers at the tone, she knows nothing good comes from it, as Ino leans into her side._

_“The blonde idiot is returning in two w-weeks.” She takes a deep breath in and lets it out, trying to stave off any wetworks. Her resolve crumbles as Ino embraces her. She wants to fight her off, but is no use and she melts into the soft grass; she could never resist Ino._

_Sakura makes herself as small as possible in Ino's arms as she feels the rest of team 10 crowd around her. The roiling ocean in her mind calms and surges up at the same time. She would happily drown in the unspoken concern and support from her team._

* * *

“Are we...?” Naruto deflates, slumping over the grass as his question trails off. His eyes closing against the painful longing in Sakura's eyes. “...really that horrible. You had a panic attack knowing I was coming back.”

 _“Team 10 weren't inclined to ignore me nine times out of ten.”_ Her tone remains neutral and her attention stays firmly on the frozen image underneath the trees.

“What? How can you say that, I didn't ignore you when I got back!”

“ _For about a week. First it was Gaara, than it was Sasuke and Orochimaru, and than you, Kakashi, and Yamato went off to complete your dad's **Rasengan** , Asuma-sensei almost died, after that it was the Akasuki, Pein leveled the village, and finally we get to the clusterfuck of the Hokage summit and Danzō. Other than during the second bell test, the fight with Sasuke at the summit, and the entire fourth war, when has Kakashi, or you, ever given me the time of day? Except on the rare occasion you needed something like medical treatment, a cheering section, help understanding world shattering issues, or learning how to read better, and when I was about to die?”_ The whole training ground was starting to take on a red tinge with each passing second of silence from Naruto.

“I'm a fucking idiot.”

Those three words took the edge off of her rage. It was the phrase she used when she was angry at him for being stupid and getting himself hurt. She hates how hard it is to stay mad at him.

Inner braces for impact as the shirtless blonde launches himself forward, she see's Sasuke tense from the corner of her eye, and pulses her chakra. _“Leave it be Sasu.”_

To Inner's surprise, Naruto stops a hair's breath shy of her. There are tears welling up in blue eyes as he takes a step back. His hesitance to touch her is both a relief and awful to see.

 _“But you're my blonde idiot,”_ She reaches for him and pulls him into her arms. _“and I wouldn't have it any other way.”_

* * *

_“Three bowls of my usual, Mr. Ichiraku, and another for this idiot, but with extra veggies.” She said with a nod to the man before taking a seat on the stool next to Naruto. She could hear the squeak of his jaw as it opened and closed, Sakura shot him a grin. “Someone had to keep them in business while you were gone and don't think I will let you eat as horribly as you use to.”_

_“You actually came to meet me.” His blue eyes were clouded with a familiar swirl of emotions, ones she was quite familiar with, and there was the flash of panic as he made to push off the stool._

_“There's nothing wrong with you.” Out of the corner of her eye, she see's the fight leave him and he collapses back onto the stool._

_“How do you do that?”_

_She lifts her hand and taps the side of her head, at the same time her chakra pulses. “Eidetic memory, registered sensor-nin, and my first ever best friend is a Yamanaka. I suspected you were inclined after the incident on Team assignment day. They were confirmed when Sasuke defected and you were...overly focused on getting him back.”_

_He snorts, turning to accept his bowl of ramen from Ayame with a whispered thanks. “I was ignoring everyone around me like a horse with blinders on.”_

_“True.” She accepted her first bowl and slurped a mouthful of noodles, as usual Teuchi's cooking was phenomenal._

_“Its not that simple though.” He sighs, staring sightless into his ramen bowl. “I never really felt drawn to anyone while on the road with Pervy Sage nor did I particularly want to do any 'bedroom' shenanigans either. Except when I thought about him or y-you.”_

_'Could he be...?' Inner frowned as she examines their interactions and letters from Naruto over the years._

_'I think he is.' Sakura's frown matched Inner's as Naruto hunkered down on the stool. He was leaning as far away from her as his stool would allow him too._

_“Its okay, I'm not angry and I'm not going to hit you. So sit up straight.” Its a few more seconds of uneasy tension when he straightens up, a nervous smile on his face._

_“I'm not straight, Sakura.”_

_“I'm not either, but you can't eat your ramen sitting like you were.” The words come easier than they did when she plucked up the courage to tell Tsunade and Raidō; Tsunade slapped an official exemption seal on her file, barring her from ever being approached for Inverse Honey-pots, so fast it made her head spin._

_“Are you like me?” His question brims with hope and an edge of relief, if she was like him then she could help him understand. Ever since he'd ask her to help him learn to read better during the academy, he came to believe that she could help him understand anything; she hasn't let him down yet._

_“No,” She catches the crushing despair as it swells to life on his face, overshadowing his usual cheer. Her hand shot up and landed on his head, his muscles tensed under her palm, but all she did was ruffle those golden spikes. “but I'm certain I know why you feel or don't feel anything for others.”_

_With a huff he waved her off and shot her his puppy dog eyes, a devastating pout on his face. Wordlessly she slid her second bowl of ramen over to him, she did not miss Ayame's chuckle as the woman set her third bowl down. “I'll have dad make you another one, on the house, for,” Ayame waved to Naruto, whose slurping down noodles with abandon. “helping him. I knew something has been eating at him for awhile, though now I understand why he's been reluctant to speak to me about it.”_

_“I've always helped him when he asks.”_

_She feels a whisper of killing intent and spreads her senses to encompass Ayame; rose petals and the sting of thorns across skin.“He invaded my personal space and made me uncomfortable when he asked, most of the time. The few times he didn't, I helped him to the best of my abilities Miss Ichiraku.”_

_Ayame's killing intent subsides as she retreats into the kitchen._

_“Shou?” Naruto asks around a mouthful of noodles._

_“One of these days, I'm going to knock some manners into that thick skull of yours, idiot.” She rolls her eyes when he raises an expectant brow._

_“So, I think you're demisexual or someone that doesn't experience sexual attraction to anyone until you've emotionally bonded with them; basically you need to be good friends with a person before you'll have any interest in them sexually.”_

_“Hmm...” He took a thoughtful gulp of the broth before setting the empty bowl on the small stack of them, a fox like grin stretches across his face, she felt the burning heat of clove race down her spine. “so I'm Sasuke sexual and Sakura sexual.”_

_'Inner, was that the fox's killing intent?'_

_'No. The fox is highly amused by our conversation.' Inner's response was so much worse than if it had been the fox's killing intent._

_“I have no intention of indulging in romantic or sexual pursuits with anyone until I know who my soulmate or soulmates are, but yes you could say that.” She concedes with a chuckle, glad to see Naruto's boundless optimism hasn't changed a bit._

_“Speaking of Sasuke,” She waits until his mouth is full of broth, “I bet you he's even prettier now, enough to be horribly distracting in a fight.”_

_His indigent squawk and spluttering coughs covers the counter in broth. Blue eyes cut like shuriken as he manages to swallow the rest of the broth. She shoots him a smile before feeling blistering hot sand and dancing shadows brush against her skin._

_When she glances over her shoulder she catches sight of Temari and Shika, entering the stand. “Hey Shika, Tem.”_

_She shoots Temari a smug grin in the face of the sand kunoichi's irritated huff. Shikamaru grumbles under his breath as he sits on Naruto's right. Naruto's eyes shift from her to Temari and back as she sits on the stool next to Sakura. “How are you not dead?”_

_“Well,” She stifles the urge to giggle madly at the confusion on Naruto's face. “turns out the sand siblings are my cousins, my mom was their mom's sister who ran away with my dad when his family passed through Wind country.”_

_“The elders flipped their lids and demanded she be turned over to Suna. Your Hokage threatened to end all talk of renewing the treaty if they dared to mention it again during the negotiations.”_

_“That still doesn't explain how she's alive for the nickname?”_

_Temari shrugs as she accepts her bowl of ramen. “Her and the Nara's crazy Yamanaka teammate, went toe to toe with Shukaku in the middle of the desert and won...as far as I'm concerned my cousin can call me whatever she wants.”_

_“S-”_

_“-I've been studying fūinjutsu since I was five, the only way to give Gaara piece of mind was to re-seal Shukaku inside Gaara with a whole new seal. It was no big deal, did you not read my last letter?”_

_“No,” He sighs before stacking his last bowl on top of the unsteady tower of them next to him. “Pervy sage told me it was time to go back home. I completely forgot about it.”_

_“You're a blonde idiot.”_

_“Heh, heh, but I'm your idiot and you love me.”_

_“Some days I wonder if you're worth the trouble or not.”_

_“Sakura!” His whining was music to her ears as she hopped off her stool and exited the stand._

_“Don't forget to be at the bridge by nine, Kaka-sensei is the same as ever.”_

_Her knees threatened to buckle as a maelstrom of rage, agony, and biting wind rippled through the seal on her left arm. Burning clove stung her nose as she stumbles a few more steps from the ramen stand. A gasp falls from her lips when she hears it. '_ **Shukaku's partner is being attacked. You tell that blonde tree whelp to aid him or I'll rip through this seal and level her grandfather's legacy,** _' Vermilion looms above, casting shadows over her. '_ **and this time I won't be thwarted by another reckless blonde idiot.** _'_

_Inner swells to tower above the shadow of the Kyuubi and tackles it, they both tumble over the Hokage mountain, a massive cloud of dust explodes into the air. Sakura pushes the ensuing fight to the back of her mind as she uses shunshin to get to the tower. Her pace doesn't slow when she senses Jōnin Hatake coming up on her left. She pictures her shishou's ratty red pillow and switches herself with it. She has enough time to arrange herself neatly on the couch before Hatake appears at the window. Her smile is the picture of innocence at the slight widening of his dark gray eye._

_“Ah,” He stutters, grasping for words, “Chūnin Haruno, w-what are you doing here-”_

_“-I'm a jōnin-”_

_“-she's a jōnin-”Tsunade huffs, “and a brat too.”_

_Her smile gets wider, at the exasperation in Tsunade's tone, but she takes no joy in what she says next. “Gaara's being attacked by Akasuki as we speak.”_

* * *

“How and when were you promoted to jōnin? Why are you and Kakashi-sensei being all intense?” Naruto says as he pulls away from Inner Sakura to study her face. His brows raised, “and how could you not tell me about feeling Kurama's chakra leaking out all over the place?”

“Tch, idiot. It clearly has something to do with her Kekkei Genkai.”

Blue eyes flash as he turns to glare at Sasuke.

 _“Field Promotion during a mission through Mist. I broke Yagura and Isobu free of a sharingan genjutsu. He sent a letter to Shishou informing her of his retirement and recommending me for promotion; even agreed to ignore Konoha meddling in Mist's affairs.”_ Inner says, curbing the amusement she feels at the shell-shocked looks him and Sasuke were sending her way.

When she's sure neither one will interrupt her she continues, _“He's ignored me from the moment I was placed on his team. I hold no respect, reverence, or kinship to Hatake Kakashi. I will remain civil and professional in his tenure as Hokage, but he was never my sensei. The moment you left with Jiraiya, I may as well have been chopped liver.”_

“What I want to know is,” Sasuke chimes in from his corner, his eyes remaining firmly on her, “why your chakra reserves are so abysmal, but you have a Kekkei Genkai?”

“And why could you feel Kurama and talk with him?”

 _“Yin chakra Naru, Kurama's killing intent gave me the spark of life I needed to start developing in Saku's brain. Fact of the matter is, I've always been attuned to your chakra because of Kurama and he's always been able to communicate with me; I just never let him get past me to speak directly with Saku. And as we know from Pein's attack, the seal was getting weaker and weaker, allowing Kurama to communicate directly with Saku.”_ Inner shifts the frozen image of the Hokage's office to the Hokage mountain, where her and Kurama are still fighting.

“That doesn't explain why he was practically civil toward you?!”

 _“That's because I've never treated him with anything other than respect. He's the reason I'm able to help Saku and I promised to aid him, within reason, once I understood how I came to be. He just so happened to ask me to help protect his family.”_ Uprooted trees shatter into a thousand pieces and as the splinters rain down on them, Inner smiles at the growl Kurama's shade looses as he jumps back to his feet. _“I'm the reason Han, Utakata, Rōshi, Fū, Yugito, Yagura, and Gaara are alive. I siphoned off a portion of chakra from their tailed beasts into my chakra storage seal. After that it wasn't hard to get my tracking seal onto them and when Akasuki extracted their bijū, I transferred the chakra back into them and used it to keep their chakra networks from falling apart.”_

“That's not all you did, is it?” Sasuke says quietly, his eyes narrowed as he remembers the showdown with Black Zetsu, and Kaguya. The images threaten to overwhelm him, Sakura's hand in Naruto's chest, Kakashi-sensei's chakra burning the air, and Minato's blinding yellow flashes as he sped across the battlefield. “You created a seal with each bijū's chakra that let their jinchūriki pull it back from the statue, obliterating it in the process while we kept Kaguya occupied.”

Naruto's mouth opens and closes as he stares at her, equal parts shock and awe in his blue eyes. Neither him, Sasuke, or Kakashi could figure out how the statue had been destroyed which gave them the opening they needed to seal her and Black Zetsu away for good. To learn it'd been Sakura's doing was tripping him up a little.

“How did you even know the Akasuki were gunning for the bijū in the first pla...Isobu and Yagura. ”

Naruto stares blankly at her as Sasuke's eyes widen a fraction before he turns back to the ongoing tussle between Kurama and Inner Sakura. He'd thought he'd gotten to know Sakura reasonably well after the Hokage summit, as she was on his guard rotation for the duration of his trial, but hearing what she'd done for the other jinchūriki...he didn't know her at all. _I probably never will, not after everything I've done to her._ His left hand twitches as he remembers the heat sliding down his skin, can still hear the crackle of lighting, feel the judder of her heartbeat, the intensity of his voice as he demanded answers, and the cutting agony of Sakura's wounds as Ino's jutsu ravaged his body. The nightmare is as reoccurring as the night he came home to silence and the smell of blood hanging heavy in the air.

_“Sasu.”_

“Hn.” His gaze catches the tension in her body at his automatic response to her. He didn't bother trying to apologize, as she wouldn't believe him for his sincerity.

_“My clan had ties to the Uzumaki, but my dad's great grandmother was an Uzumaki. Thankfully, she had no relation to Naru's mom, but that's why my chakra reserves were abysmal despite my kekkei genkai. Among the Uzumaki there are two types, chakra tanks and chakra regulators, Naru is a chakra tank; has the means to power seals, but no way to control the chakra._

_Saku is a chakra regulator or the control. While both types have huge reserves of chakra, regulators were about average as far as Uzumaki chakra reserves go. Many of these Uzumaki spent years refining their control and eventually one of them created the first kinjutsu fūinjutsu. This seal would slowly degrade overtime as the children it was placed on grew up, the seal was designed to slow down the maturation rate of the child's chakra coils to maintain control over their chakra. It was destroyed after the first chakra regulators had their own children; their chakra coils acted the same as their parents, but without the fūinjutsu present. Today is the day Saku's coils have reached full maturity.”_

There's a glint in bright blue eyes, the emotion is easy for him to read as he watches Naruto glare daggers at Inner Sakura's back. They had been spending every last moment of their free time combing the ruins of Uzushio for any traces of information on his clan. To think that Sakura had had so much information all this time and to not say anything. As quickly as the anger swelled up in him, it left him as his sharingan shows him her panic and longing as she fought and trained with team 10. His anger was still present if only for how she withheld information from Naruto. A whisper from deep in his mind torments him with questions. _With how much they ignored her and didn't give her a second thought after the war, why would she feel the need to tell them any of this. Would she have told them, if they weren't her soulmates?_

“How much chakra does she have?” He says in the charged silence after her statement, he shoves the questions he wants to ask to the back of his mind; he had no right to ask her things like that.

“ _About one third of Naru's chakra reserves._ ”

“Once again,” Naruto growls, the words more garbled and heavy in his throat as his connection with Kurama alters him. He crouches on all fours and stalks closer to Inner Sakura. His eyes don't see the way she shrinks in on herself at his advance nor does he listen to Kurama's warning to stop. “why wouldn't you tell me about my clan. I thought we were friends.”

A moment before he would've impacted with Inner Sakura, she dissolved into the the ground. Blackness overtook every last source of light. The last thing Naruto and Sasuke saw, was the shade of Kurama getting flung from the top of the fourth Hokage's head. Then the both of them were flung off the second Hokage's head and landed in a nightmare.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jutsu list:  
> Doton: Tajū Doryūheki. Multi mud wall - The user can make a wall or multiple walls out of earth to reinforce pre-existing walls.  
> Doton: Gōremu. Stone golem - the user creates a humanoid creature from the earth capable of withstanding point blank explosions and tearing through most obstacles in its path.  
> Suiton: Teppōdama. Water release gunshot - the user shoots a condensed blast or blasts of water at the target.  
> Fūton: Reppūshō: Wind Release: Gale Palm – the user can increase their velocity with the jutsu or create compress and transform the wind into a powerful gale by pressing their hands together, which has enough force to knock an enemy over.  
> kekkei genkai: Bloodline limit 
> 
> I would love to know what you liked and what you thought was lacking, I won't bite your head off for helping me improve my writing. I will however not tolerate any Naru/Sasu stans attacking me for daring to examine their faves and trying to explore their character flaws. 
> 
> Why yes Naruto is demisexual. Please do not yell at me for my use of the Asexual website for information about demisexuality and such. Also if you are demisexual and have suggestions or tips on how to write demisexual characters, don't be afraid to leave a comment on here with them. I am just a bi person trying to be inclusive of other LGBTQIA minorities in my fics. 
> 
> **Proceed at your own risk.**
> 
> Okay, so I know everyone was expecting to jump into the Hokage summit and that whole fight, however, there are other things we need to tackle first. Those things being Naruto's return from training and how basically after rescuing Gaara and fighting Sasuke at Orochimaru's base, Sakura's presence, relevance, and impact in canon is gone.
> 
> I am so fucking done with Canon Naruto. I had to re-watch and re-read certain parts of the anime and manga to write some chapters and what I saw was infuriating. I have no idea where to begin to tell you about the major shafting that Sakura receives from her creator nor the scene that was the last fucking straw. ****_[SERIOUSLY WHY THE FUCK IS SASU/SAKU EVEN CANON. HOW CAN SHE STILL LOVE THAT FUCKING PISS OF SHIT DOUCHE BAG???!!!!!!]_
> 
> Ugh...I am so done. I will no longer put up with any comments that try to tell me Sakura is OP in my fic because someone has to give her a break. Someone has to respect this character whose creator hates her. Seriously don't try and tell me that Kishi cares about her, because he doesn't. No normal human would ever put up with the shit that Sasuke does. Especially not to the extreme that Sakura does. I don't care that its anime or not real. Because it is a reflection of an ACTUAL HUMAN BEING and a glimpse into their mind's inner workings. I am even more afraid for humanity because of how one man views women. 
> 
> Moving on. Asuma and team ten adopt Sakura because why the fuck not. Sakura is an Uzumaki, FIGHT ME!!!!! Pink is a shade of red, god damn it. In no way, shape, or form, is Sakura related to Naruto. And look at that, I filled in a plot hole and explained how the Uzumaki could use seals and have great chakra control, go me. There's a reason why I don't mention Jiraiya getting killed [because he wasn't] and...I will be writing a companion fic to this one that will go into details about that. However I have to finish this one first... 
> 
> More shit to come in the next few chapters. Things must get worse before they get better. I promise they get better. 
> 
> Huge thank you to the kudos, comments, and bookmarks people have left during the 8 months I have not updated this thing.


	7. Anchor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sakura learns of her parents deaths, gets promoted to Chunin, and is attacked by masked nin when she returns home to pack up her parents' belongings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So a while back I said I would update this thing on Friday's...and since I've been writing a lot lately I have another chapter ready to go.

**_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or its characters. I own only the plots/situations/ideas that I have placed the characters in._ **

* * *

_She wasn't aware of her surroundings, she knew she was sitting in a hard chair, the smell of antiseptic and bleach placed her in the hospital, and the weight of her sensei's lone eye flickering up from the pages of his book from time to time made her feel less alone, but she wasn't aware of her surroundings. Everything was still flying around her head, the memories of killing the Suna nin and stopping the Oto nin from destroying one of the civilian shelters. Her injuries, barely a day old, were itching with foreign medical chakra that Inner complained about. The bandages were brown with old blood and already needed changing._

_The silence pressed in around her, the clock in the waiting room was broken and without the incessant ticking she needed something to distract her from the memories of the last day and a half. From the harried Genin corp messenger that summoned her to the hospital. With more a need to occupy her time rather than any desire to bond with her aloof sensei, she asked a question of him, one that Inner had been pushing her to ask for the last hour. “Why didn't you find an instructor for me?”_

_Kakashi's hands falter and the page he was turning falls from limp fingers as her question reaches him. She sees his eye narrow and imagines the thoughtful frown of his mouth, if she could see the bottom half of his face. At last he closes his book with a sigh and tucks it into his only visible weapons pouch._

_“I knew your parents would want to teach you themselves, they are capable chūnin and would have a better working knowledge of the skills you were hiding from everyone.” The implied, 'you should have been upfront about them to me' is left unsaid._

_“They were still on their BOR mission for another two weeks, surely a jōnin like yourself would have known that.”_

_“I did, but you had skills that no one knew of. I wasn't worried about you doing poorly in your match.”_

_“Those skill are clan secrets, sensei. In the Haruno family we take the stealthy part of the shinobi arts seriously.” She smirks at his subtle, but no less, raised eyebrow. “Fact of the matter is, there's a lot you don't know about me Kaka-sensei.”_

_“How about you enlighten me then?”_

_“I killed all three of the Oto genin in the second exam when they came for Sasuke. I killed twelve jōnin level nin during the invasion and yet, you still look at me like I'm going to quit being a ninja any day now.”_

_“I'll admit, I did not think much of you during the bell test, and considering how intent you were on Sasuke during the academy, I wasn't expecting much from you.” There's an undercurrent of wariness in his voice as he says this. She waits for him to finish, to say what they both know is true. “I never have. You're a first generation ninja with substandard chakra reserves. The only reason you've made it this far is because of your chakra control. One day soon, control won't be enough and I can't watch another innocent die in front of me.”_

_“Is that why you refused to train me? Only giving Naruto and Sasuke your attention because they have enough chakra to make it?”_

_She will never know the answers to her questions as the lab tech and a nurse enter the waiting room. The women slowly approach her, the tech fidgets with her clipboard as the nurse clears her throat. Her voice is kind and soft when she speaks._

_“Genin Haruno, I'm sorry. We have a match.”_

_“My mom or dad?” Her knuckles are white as she grips the chair's arm rests, ignoring the sting of wood as it digs into her palm. She feels Inner bracing for the worst._

_“I am so, so sorry. Its both of them.”_

_“Is there anything I need to do right now, papers to sign or...?”_

_Kakashi, the lab tech, and the nurse are all staring at her and waiting, but they will get nothing from her. The three adults share concerned looks before Kakashi shrugs._

_“No. Not at the moment, we're still testing everyone. So if you'll come back in a week or so we can sort everything out then.”_

_“Jōnin Hatake,” She rises from the chair, ignoring the man's flinch at her overly professional address to him, and heads straight for the doors that lead back to the front desk. “will you tell Naruto and Sasuke?”_

_“I'll take care of it. I don't think you should be alone right now.” He moves to take a step towards her only to stop as her body dissolves into a flurry of cherry blossom petals. It will occur to him later that day that he didn't hear her speak nor did he see her perform hand signs._

* * *

_The Yamanaka flower shop is a hive of activity and alive with colors and sounds. The bell jingles lightly as she steps inside, she exhales as Ino's voice washes over her. “Kura, we're swamped can you lend a hand?”_

_Her knees buckle at the familiar nickname, her impact with the wooden floor is ignored as her tears fall. She manages to wipe them away, but Ino had seen them; had always been observant and attuned to her. When she hears Ino yell for her dad, something in her breaks and the sobs are torn from Inner's grip on them._

_“Easy.”_

_She curls in on herself even more as the surface of a pond ripples and the bottomless darkness comes alive with specks of light flitting to and fro. “Sakura, I'm going to pick you up and carry you upstairs. Alright?”_

_A moment later her body is weightless as he scoops her up, a hint of sandalwood and pine needles wash over her. The force of her sobs get worse as Inoichi reaches the stairs. Distantly she hears a scathing remark, the second exam's proctor comes to mind, as she hears, “This is a flower shop, buy flowers or get the fuck out.”_

_“What happened?_

_“I asked her if she could lend a hand and then she just collapsed and started crying.” Ino's worry smothered her like a blanket as she heard the creak of the floorboards; Ino's room is where they used to work on their stealth during the academy._

_“Sakura?” He tries. There's no response from her not until he tries to set her down on Ino's bed. Her grip turns bruising ._

_“I-I don't want t-to be alone.” She hiccups through her tears._

_“I'm not going anywhere, but my dad needs to go man the register.” Honeyed grass washes over her._

_When he moves to set her down again, she lets go of his shirt and curls into a ball on the blanket. She hears the bed frame squeak as Ino climbs over her and settles behind her, pulling her closer. Something in her eases, the tide of her tears lessens, and her heart doesn't hurt as much._

_“Whose ass do I have to kick?”_

_“Piglet...” Inoichi's tone is hard._

_“Sorry, whose ass do we have to kick?”_

_She giggles as she watches Inoichi nod approvingly at Ino. The giggles are broken by another sob. Her eyes close as she cries harder than before. “T-They're dead. My p-parents are d-dead.”_  

* * *

_“Genin Haruno!” Her head turned to face the legendary, and irate, Lady Tsunade sat behind the desk. For a moment she stared into hazel eyes at a loss for why she was in the Hokage's office. Thankfully, or not, her new Hokage chucked a green vest at her. She caught the object before it hit her in the face, it took another moment to realize what she was holding. When she did, it nearly made her start crying again, she was tired of crying all the time._

_“Congratulations, you've been promoted to chūnin for the defeat of 12 enemy nin and assistance in preventing major civilian casualties during the invasion. Your performance for all the portions of the exams were impressive and shows you have the qualities need for leadership.”_

_“Thank you, Ma'am.” She says, hoping the tremble in her tone goes unnoticed, it does not._

_Lady Tsunade of the Sannin gestures for her to take a seat in one of the chairs in front of her desk. She doesn't move until Ino gives her a shove, Ino follows her and she already feels the tears welling up. The last two weeks have been hard for them both, and Inoichi; Yumi died in an attempt to stop the fleeing Orochimaru and the sound four as she was returning from a mission. Inoichi's chakra is a deep pond with a tranquil surface as he stands behind them, hovering protectively._

_“Haruno Sakura,” The reverence in Tsunade's tone, makes Sakura frown.“I wish to thank your clan for their service to the village. I know the funeral was hard for everyone last week, I'll try to keep this short._

_I am aware of your confusion about the attendance by nearly half of all the ninja in the village just for your parents, two average chūnin and whatnot. As per the regulations put in place by my uncle when he founded the_ _Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai, their identities were revealed to all ninja chūnin and above, you're parents were well respected and highly skilled among the elite. It pains me to have to present you with their personal effects and respective masks.”_

_Two black scrolls are held out to her and she can not bring herself to reach for them. The scrolls move out of her range of vision. She watches Inoichi as he takes them from Tsunade, tucking them into one of his pockets._

_“Mebuki and Kizashi were the best ANBU captains the organization's ever seen. They were exemplary in their designated cover as chūnin and the village is worse off without them. Unfortunately we took heavy losses in the invasion, dozens of good shinobi were lost.” Tsunade's lips press together in a thin line, the softness in hazel, hardens as they pin Inoichi in place. “All of you have one week to get yourselves as together as possible for missions. Chūnin Haruno, you'll assume command over team 7 while your sensei takes on S-ranks. Genin Yamanaka, please inform your Nara teammate of his promotion and that he will assume command of team 10 while your sensei is similarly pulled for S-ranks. Dismissed.”_

_Together they file out of the Hokage's office, none of them say anything as they exit the tower and take the fastest route back to the flower shop. Inoichi ushers them inside the third floor window. The living room lights up, the seals flaring to life as soon as Ino enters the room. Sakura sets the heavy green vest on the coffee table before dropping onto the couch. She feels Ino settle beside her as she watches Inoichi shut the window. His chakra flares and she traces the security seals with her eyes as they spread along the walls, effectively trapping them in the room._

_“We don't have to go through everything right now.”_

_She gives him her best watery smile, “It's okay. My parents have always...were always teaching me about secrets and telling me it was necessary to lie about them even to those closest to you, its how my clan has avoided drawing attention to themselves. I had my suspicions about them being a higher rank than they let on.”_

_“Still learning they were Shadow ANBU...”_

_“Shadow ANBU, redundant much.” She doesn't miss either of their snorts as she says this._

_They knew the easiest way to draw her out of her grief was to distract her with new information or sheer idiocy. When she'd first appeared with Shunshin a day and half after the invasion, she cried herself into a catatonic state. She walked around on autopilot, if they asked her to do something she'd simply do it and follow them around wherever they went._

_She ate, slept, and did the things you do to keep living, but nothing else. They'd feared she was dissociating from the death of her parents, but when Ino shoved a book in her face about advanced chakra theory and asked her about water walking; she'd come alive for the first time in a week._

_Inoichi had spent the next two days watching Sakura giggle as his little piglet kept falling into their pond. Only for Sakura to shriek at the top her lungs when water splattered over her. “Shut up Forehead, not all of us have god-like chakra control.”_

_Things got worse after the testing was finished. With the huge influx of bodies and the absolute mess of the infrastructure of the village, the death of the Hokage, Uchiha Itachi's attack on Kakashi and Sasuke, there had been no news about on-going missions and their casualties. When they got word that Yumi had been killed, it surprised him that Sakura could be there for Ino. He still remembers the spike of killing intent she unleashed on him and her scathing 'She's always been there for me. Its my turn to be strong for her!'_

_He shook the memories from his head and settled on his favorite chair before pulling the two scrolls from his pocket. “I know, a bit redundant, but nevertheless Shadow ANBU are those ninja that no one knows are ANBU. The visible ANBU, like the ones that guard the Hokage, aren't as gung-ho about hiding their identities as the Shadow ANBU are. These ANBU are only known to two people, their division commander and the Hokage. There's no written records of their membership, their family, friends, children, and even fellow teammates are unaware of their rank and most never learn of it until they are dead. Its very rare that two agents are from the same family and learning that your parents were members...I'm still having a hard time picturing it.”_

* * *

  _Her fingers refused to work as she wrapped her hand around the door knob, it was the first time she'd gone home since the day she spent at the hospital with Jōnin Hatake. The door swung open soundlessly revealing the entry hall. Behind her Ino exhaled sharply, seems she'd seen the mess of broken glass and wooden splinters scattered across the floor as well._

_Black scorch marks marred the walls of the living room, kitchen, and the stairwell, she'd spied even more along the walls of the second floor too. Someone had tried to start a fire, the fact that they'd managed to breach her dad's security seals astounded her; his seals were second only to her mom's, he'd said she'd easily outclass him one day. The thought pulled a shaky breath from her. She stopped to will away the tears threatening to spill over. Ino's hand squeezing her shoulder serve to ground her._

_“We don't have to do this, Kura.”_

_“The faster I collect everything and store it, the faster I can get settled into one of the genin apartments and lessen the burden on your closet.” She laughs at Ino's answering huff of irritation._

_“I still don't see why you won't just move into the spare room.”_

_“Where would Chōji and Shika crash after missions, if I'm in the spare room.” She says as she heads toward the back of the house, heading for the stairs leading to the basement._

_“They can sleep on the couch.”_

_“I would never make you listen to Shika's whining. Ino you know the village's law better than anyone, no one of the same age can share the same living space for longer than two months unless they are blood related or already have a soulmate.”_

_“I still don't like it. And you're going to visit me when you're not on missions.”_

_“Duh.” They both have small smiles on their faces as they reach the basement stairs._

_The stairs are black and the smell of chakra smoke lingers heavily in the air, the closer they get to the bottom. They stop short at the blue glow of chakra shining from the seal covered door. Her tears flow faster as the soft whisper of wind and rain brushes over her. The rain patter on the roof, sharp cold air, and wet wood fills her lungs. Hot, cold, and warm wind stirs a field of wildflowers as the scent of those flowers gets carried on those winds._

_Her parents chakras fade in their intensity as she approaches the door, the seals spread across the the surface call out to her like a song. It settles in her blood, a relentless pounding begins in her head, and she knows what to do. The taste of iron and copper spills across her tongue as her teeth slice open her thumb. She drags her bleeding thumb along the baseline of the sealing matrix on the door._

_There's a surge as her parents chakras begin to shrink to nothing as the blood, ink, and chakra race like fire across her skin. She smells the brine, hears the gulls cry, her feet stand on warm sand, and the whole of the island is a mass of fire and smoke. The images fade away as the burn of her parents chakras slowly taper off._

_The massive seal spans her entire right arm, it glows faintly with chakra, she can still hear the gulls crying. She shakes her head of the sensation and gapes at the dark bottomless hole, where the basement should've been, uncomprehending of what happened._

_'Saku!' Inner's shout jars her out of her shock and she ducks the kunai sailing through the air at her. Muffled curses reach her from upstairs. She turns with kunai drawn, a chant of 'not Ino' on repeat in her mind as she leaps to the top of the stairs. The kunai flies from her hand at the masked nin creeping up on Ino's left. The nin's body tumbles down the stairs, falling into the dark hole at the bottom._

_She slashes with the kunai in her right hand as she reappears and another masked nin slumps to the ground, lifeless. 'There's more headed our way.'_

_Her hands fumble for her weapons pouch, it takes longer than it should to pull the whistle free. As soon as she does, she takes a deep breath and blows as hard as she can. A masked nin slashes their blade aiming at her right shoulder. '_ _ **Restraint Release**_ '.

 _Inner wastes no time and launches a kunai of their yin chakra at the offender, the nin's blade shatters on contact with it. The nin is thrown off balance and she steps into them, smashing her fist into the nin's throat. A wheeze escapes their mouth before they stumble back, Inner's not through with them yet. '_ _ **Inner Control: Chakra mines**_ ' _._

_The kunai breaks apart taking on the shape of the shattered nin's sword, each fragment rises in the air and spins around to track the nin's retreat further into the living room. The nin's squad members advance to cover their retreat. Sakura throws a kunai through each fragment, giving the mines forward momentum. The mask nin easily deflect her kunai, the moment one of the kunai lands near the wounded nin, her chakra expands, spikes of solid blank impale the three nin in her living room. Her vision goes fuzzy at the edges as chakra exhaustion washes through her. More masked nin pour into the house, she hears Ino cry out._

_“Forehea-”_

_Adrenalin shot through her as Ino falls silent, but her limbs are heavy and refuse to obey her. Inner is strangely silent and her yin chakra is dropping at an alarming rate. Her heart beat stutters in her chest as Inner's presence disappears entirely. The floor is rushing up at her and when she moves her arm to stop her descent, she see's the senbon sticking out of it. 'Paralytic chakra inhibitor poison.'_

_The mask nin drag her and Ino into the living room, another nin clears away the four nin she killed and placed her down on a black sheet. Chakra roils off the seals on the sheet. The nin are completely silent, communicating with signs as another nin opens a scroll and unseals a bone saw. Sakura doesn't need to know the signs they're using to understand what's going to happen._

_There's a small trickle of chakra that will still obey her, she uses it to create a chakra string and pulls Ino's hand closer. The poison tears at her tenketsu, her screams are trapped in her throat, but at least she can feel Ino's steady pulse; the pain was worth it. One of the masked nin, the shortest one there, tilts their head._

_She tries to pull away from the nin's hand as it hovers over hers and Ino's, a moment later and the nin pulls back. When they do so, they slip and their hand knocks hers further toward Ino's. She decides to memorize the feel of the nin's chakra, despite the nin's stillness, their chakra is a kaleidoscope of colors and playfulness._

_The nin moves away from them as the nin with the bone saw kneels next to her head. They place the bone saw an inch above the seal on her right arm. The metal teeth bite into her arm at the same time as the wall shatters into a million splinters. Kuromaru's teeth clamp down over the nin's shoulder and rips him off of her. Tsume flies over them and tackles another nin away from Ino. A cloud of kikaichū settled over four of the masked nin nearest to her and Ino._

_Howls rend the air as more and more Inuzuka crashed through the walls with their partners. The Haimaru brothers formed a protective ring around her and Ino as Hana picked her up, she growled as best as she could. Her chakra sharpening into killing intent as her eyes slid to Ino. 'Don't you dare leave her here'._

_Hana looked from her to Ino and back. From the corner of her eye she spotted Akamaru and then Kiba was there hefting Ino over his shoulder. “I got her. Now lets get them out of here.”_

* * *

_“I wondered what Mebuki had done with her whistle.” Tsume's tone is subdued and tinged with sadness. “I'll be at the funeral next week, but good thinking kid.”_

_“Seems there is a brain behind all that Sasuke fangirling you did in the academy.” Kiba mutters under his breath. He lets out high pitch yip when his mom smacks him upside the head._

_“She is going to be promoted to chūnin, so mind your tongue runt.”_

_His stunned expression had her burst into giggles. He opened and closed his mouth a couple of times. “Seriously?”_

_“Assisted me with taking down a Suna jōnin, landed the killing blow herself. No way was I not not going to recommend her for promotion. Signless and silent substitution while falling forty feet... ”_

_“Just doing my part.” Her muscles were still stiff from the poison and Inner was absent, but her yin chakra was barely more than a trickle._

_“Anyways,” Tsume's grin is terrifying as the woman's posture shifted and Kuromaru growled. “any idea what tonight was all about.”_

_“My family has secrets, but apparently my clan was native to Uzushio and had strong ties to the Uzumaki-”_

_“-Kiba, Akamaru, take Inoichi's brat to the kitchen and get some food in her. She's waking up.”_

_The two of them scurried as fast as they could out the door, disappearing down the hall toward the room they placed Ino in. Tsume loosed a breath before pinning her in place with a fierce fire filled stare. Kuromaru got up to shut the door. As soon as it closed, a chaotic storm of chakra flared up and seals unfurled from the ceiling._

_“Sakura, it is regrettably my job, as a Toku-Jō of Konoha to order you to keep your mouth shut and to never breath a word of your connection to the Uzumaki clan to Uzumaki Naruto or anyone inside the village.”_

_“What, why?”_

_“After the destruction of Uzushio, my team was sent there a month later. Before we even left Fire country we discovered the bodies of two Uzushio messenger nin at the southern most outpost on Fire's border. There were masked nin swarming the place. My team retreated and hid some distance away and watched them burn it. We captured one of the stragglers to interrogate them. There wasn't much the Yamanaka with us could get from their mind, but they got enough to implicate Konoha's hand in Uzushio's destruction._

_Since then, there have been rumors of any survivors vanishing without a trace. Naruto is the only one who hasn't, but he was guarded by ANBU for most of his childhood so that could be a factor. Clearly from tonight's attack, whatever your parents had in their basement is valuable enough to kill for. Find somewhere to deposit the seal and leave it in its dormant state until you're strong enough to kill whoever comes for it.”_

* * *

_The seals whisper at the back of her mind as she transfers them onto the metal casing of the photograph. In the picture her dad has a goofy grin on his face, her mom is rolling her eyes at him, but she's still tucked into his side on the couch. She's not in it, as it was the first picture they took as a couple of young chūnin moving into their first apartment. Its her favorite picture, as its small enough to fit into the metal traveling frame and her dad's grin never failed to make her smile._

_Her dad created them and sold them at cost to shinobi tool shops. The seals made the cases practically indestructible and they'd only open for the few people keyed to the seals. When she'd asked him about it, he'd said he made them so shinobi could carry a piece of home with them. He made her the one she was holding for her birthday when she became a genin._

_She tucked the picture into the pocket she's sewn into her mother's chūnin vest and sealed it inside her pink storage scroll. The scroll she tossed into a pile of similar scrolls before exiting her apartment, heading for the mission office. It was time for team 7's first mission since the invasion._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _**Proceed at your own risk.**_
> 
> Kishi said that Sakura was a 'normal' girl in his story. Just plain Jane normal. Well...he did not take into consideration what would be defined as 'normal' in the world he created. Nor how 'normal' would change depending on where a person lived. Especially those that live in a ninja village. So...Sakura's parents are actually members of ANBU and have a lot of connections to different clans within Konoha. Because why the fuck not? Also if her parents are going to be the only ones alive out of team 7, FUCKING PUT THEM IN THE STORY!!! Though you'll be interested to know that Sakura's mom is the only one aside from Yoshino, Shika's mom, who actually has a name. 
> 
> I took the liberty of giving Ino's mom a name and making her a bad ass who died trying to stop Orochimaru from fleeing.  
> Also there will be more from Sakura about not telling Naruto about being from Uzushio and being an Uzumaki. 
> 
> Also no jutsu list because the jutsu is self explanatory. Three guesses as to who that masked nin is...
> 
> Chakra reference list:  
> Inoichi - chakra feels like a tranquil pond with luminescent fish swimming around in it.  
> Mebuki - hot desert winds and a field of wild flowers.  
> Kizashi - soft rain, biting cold winds, and wet wood.  
> Ino- cut grass, uncut wild grass, and honey.


	8. To Escape Is To Be Empty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It is rare to witness the bond between soulmates before they've experience the Dreaming, Sakura has always seen it between Naruto and Sasuke; knowing there isn't room for her.

**_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or its characters. I own only the plots/ideas/situations I have placed the characters in and my OCs._ **

* * *

_'Note to self, invest in gloves or coat your hands in chakra before you grab a wooden mast to swat Ame nin like flies with, to prevent splinters.'_

_Inner snorted. 'Its not like you had much choice.'_

_At that she glanced to where Naruto and Sasuke where sleeping, Idate sleeping in between them closer to Naruto than Sasuke. She groaned just thinking about the fight with the Ame nin from the chūnin exams. Naruto started fighting with Idate over a pocket knife until she elbowed him aside and cut the ropes herself. Before Naruto could say anything she un-sealed a spare weapons pouch and chucked it at him._

_She pretended the surprised look on Sasuke and Naruto's faces didn't hurt. It didn't hurt when she climbed on top of the water's surface and bolted for the shore line to protect Idate. Nor did it hurt when they both surfaced a while later grinning like idiots._

_'We're chūnin and they're not.'_

_'Yeah and they'd laugh in my face if I told them that.' She shakes her head and brings her focus back to pulling out the splinters in her right hand._

_So far she's pulled out twenty of them and she hasn't even started on her other hand or the ones she can feel in her arms. Her and Inner agree on investing in gloves and switching to long sleeves if they're going to use whatever is on hand to fight with. 'Saku, I bet you anything that if we told Naru about our clan's link to the Uzumaki...he wouldn't ignore us anymore.'_

_'I'm not going to tell him just so he'll pay attention to us. I'm going to tell him after the mission because its the right thing to do. I should have told him when I became the keeper of the Uzushio archives.'_

_'Don't start that again. We were attacked, Ino and you almost died, and Naruto was dragging our new Hokage back to the village. When was there time to tell him anything? Or is this about the fact that mom and dad were on his ANBU guard rotation until he graduated the academy? Cause if it is, they were just as guilty for not coming clean about it either.'_

_'Its just,' Her eyes shift back to Naruto who was spread eagle on his back, one of his legs twitch, and she heard him mumbling about not having enough ramen. 'he's asked me so many times to help him find out anything about his clan. Its not fair to keep him in the dark about it, regardless of what Tsume told us. He deserves to know that he's got family spread across the elemental countries.'_

_'And what if those masked nin come after us? Or what if those seals on the archives can be modified to locate those Uzushio survivors and what if, that is why those masked nin wanted the archives?' Inner argued, ignoring how Saku's words was a major blow to their resolve to not tell him until he was older._

_'The Haruno and Uzumaki were allies as tight knit as the Nara, Akimichi, and Yamanaka clans are. They were the back bone of the might of Uzushio and together were unstoppable. It was their joint seals that created the archives, the Uzumaki contributing the power, space folding, and the housing matrix and the Haruno breathing intelligence and life into the chakra, blood, and ink. Its his right to know about it.'_

_Inner almost brought up the kyuubi, but she didn't. Saku wasn't consciously aware nor had she been told about it. She knew it was driving Saku up the wall with how attuned to his chakra they were, it just wasn't something Saku could learn from her. Inner knew what introducing Naruto and in turn, Kurama, to the archives could do; destabilize the weakening seal._

_'Just don't let him near the archives, not yet, but you're right we should tell him what we know about the Uzumaki and how we know.'_

* * *

_“It was so cool. Sakura broke the mast of the ship,” He gestured with his hands and mimed swinging a bat in a circle. “whipping out the rest of the clones before throwing it like a spear or, or a java-thingy at the other ship. When it hit there was a huge boom and their ship broke into a bizillon pieces. At that point ours was almost completely covered in flames. Than she jumped into the water after Idate, me and the bastard followed her in. Once we surfaced she climbs on top of the water and sprints to the shore to find Idate. Before we could do the same, I was pulled under along with the bastard and we had to fight off an army of water clones in the water.”_

_As he started miming how that battle went, accompanied with the appropriate sound effects and some clones to lend a hand in the recount, Tsunade caught her eye and raised a brow. She nodded and pulled out her mission report that she'd written on the ship. They both were pulled back into Naruto's report in time to see him throw one of the clones out the open window._

_“I was a little panicked when the bastard was thrown over the cliff, but the Ame jerk still had his sword, so I used **Rasengan** one more time to try and break it. Cause Sakura told me the bastard's **Chidori** had cracked it. So I rush in after the next wave of clones were destroyed, there was an awful screeching and a big boom like a thunderstorm and the Ame jerk and his sword were blown over the cliff. After that I checked on Sakura and the bastard before helping Idate finish the race.” _

_“Good work, brat, dismissed.”_

_Naruto whooped and leapt toward the door, she didn't move, knowing full well Tsunade would want details about their unexpected prisoner in their T &I cells. However, Naruto stopped when he realized she hadn't moved yet. “Go on ahead, I need to hand in my written report, but I will meet you at Ichiraku's later.” _

_“As a date or...?” He hedged carefully, wearily eyeing her right arm._

_“To hang out as friends, dummy. I also have something to tell you.” The grin he flashed her was as bright as the sun before he ran out the door._

_“Any reason why you didn't inform your teammates about your promotion to chūnin?”_

_“With all due respect Ma'am, it would cause problems and a rift to form between me and Sasuke. He's not the same ever since his recent run in with his brother. What Naruto neglected to tell you in his report was Sasuke's sullen attitude during the trip back. There was also his delirious fever ramblings two days before the boat docked, he was going on and on about needing more power and how it was unfair that Naruto had more than him.” Here she pauses before straightening her spine and shouting a thousand apologies to Sasuke. “Frankly he's a flight risk and he tapped into the curse mark's power right before he was incapacitated.”_

_“What do you suggest I do to remedy the situation?” She was momentarily taken aback by Tsunade's question._

_“Suspension from all missions and a full assessment from the head of the Yamanaka psych division in T &I. As his records don't have an attached psych evaluation for right after the massacre or after his encounter with his brother.” _

_“He's not going to like it, but I'll see to it that it's made clear to him that he will go to treatment or he'll stay in the village indefinitely. Is your mission report finished?”_

_“Yes Ma'am.”_

_She hands the scroll to Shizune when she moves closer to retrieve it. Sakura takes a breath and lets it out before addressing her Hokage before she's dismissed. “There's one other thing, if I may?”_

_“What is it?”_

_“I want to become your apprentice.” The absolutely blank look on Tsunade's face, whether from shock or incomprehension, she isn't sure, but she presses on despite the tense silence in the office. “More so because you're the best medic in the world, but whatever else you'd like to teach me, I'll learn.”_

_“You have a pair of balls, I'll give you that much, Haruno.” Tsunade's tone held amusement and a bone deep exhaustion in equal measure. “Let me mull it over and I'll give you my answer before the month is over. Dismissed.”_  

* * *

_Their contingent had returned to Suna and every last civilian was there to greet their returning Kazekage, Gaara looked like a flash-bang tag had gone off in his face. Sakura had hung back to keep an eye on Lady Chiyo and Kankurō, whom she tore into on the battlefield for leaving when she hadn't cleared him. He was then nearly crushed to death in the hug she gave him._

_“Girly are you sure you don't want to relocate to Suna?”_

_“Not on your life.” Temari snorts and Kankurō fails at disguising his laugh as cough. She rolls her eyes. “I'm way too Konoha for the likes of you sand lovers. That, and I made a promise to Naruto.”_

_“I still don't know how you saved Gaara so easily.”_

_“When I resealed Shukaku into Gaara, with Ino's help, I stored a small part of his chakra into a specially designed seal. I created the seal to freeze a portion of any bijū's chakra so that it wouldn't grow on its own and become too large for my seal to hold. After that it was a simple matter of being close enough to sense my tracking seal and switch closer to him and use the sample of Shukaku's chakra to stabilize Gaara's tenketsu.”_

_“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up.” Kankurō made a X shape with his arms. “How did you get a portion of Shukaku's chakra into a scroll? The sole reason why bijū are sealed into newborns, is so their tenketsu mature with the bijū's chakra already infecting it, so they can use it later on.”_

_“I can use the excess chakra in chakra smoke as fuel for my own jutsu with my chakra control and because of my medical training, I have to be able to match my chakra frequency to my patient's or I won't be able to heal them. I have a lot of experience doing that with a jinchūriki.”_

_“So you can use my own chakra against me if we spar?” He said, looking a little green around the gills._

_“I only use the technique sparingly or the damage to my own tenketsu will be irreversible. During the chūnin exams, I used it to stabilize the Uchiha's curse mark.” She pulses her chakra before rolling up the left sleeve of her black undershirt. Sakura feels the gazes of several other Suna nin zero in on the scars as well as Temari, Kankurō, and Chiyo. “Luckily or not, depends on how you look at it, my chakra coils weren't as fully matured as other genin, so I got chakra burns instead of any lasting damage to my coils.”_

_“Holy shit. Are you saying you fought in the chūnin exams with zero to no chakra and still got promoted?!”_

_“If you think that's impressive,” Her grin is small and sweet, her cousins know better than anyone that scary things follow that grin. “I'm only able to use about fifty percent of my chakra until my yin seal is filled.”_

_With that she left, vanishing in a swirl of sand and reappearing next to Naruto and Jōnin Hatake. “Naruto when we get back to the village I have to talk to you about something.”_

_“Can we get Ichiraku's first?”_

_“Yeah, sure.”_  

* * *

_“Oh thank the Sage. Sakura, Raidō and Genma need immediate attention. Our squad was ambushed by rogue Kiri nin.” She can feel the eyes of Naruto and Jōnin Hatake on her as she bolts past the frantic Aboa._

_“What's their status Aboa?” Her voice is a sharp bark, but it does nothing to stop the rising panic in the toku-jō's eyes._

_“Aboa!”_

_“Right, Raidō's got several broken ribs, deep lacerations across his back, and severe third degree burns, the burns were from the mission not the ambush. Genma's left hand and right leg were cut off, I got them sealed in a stasis scroll and placed your triage seals on Genma. Tessen was poisoned, he's got a black tag on all of his wounds.”_

_She pauses at the base of the stairs and placed a hand on his shoulder, giving it a squeeze. He stopped, making no move to ascend the stairs after her. “You did good, Aboa, I'll take it from here. Send the Godiame a request for a unit to move them to the hospital once I have them stable.”_  

* * *

_“Sakura we're going after the bastard as soon as I can find another member for our team. We'll have to set out today, so what did you want to tell me?”_

_“It's...” The words stick in her throat as she feels the itch of Danzō's chakra hammering against her senses. His spies were everywhere, Ichiraku's was the only place they hadn't found her privacy seals. She couldn't just pull one out or it'd give them a reason to go looking for the archives. “going to be hard for me to see Sasuke. I just wanted to warn you that I'm not going to pull my punches.”_

_“I know. I wouldn't ask you to hold back when we find him, but will you hang back and let me try to talk to him first?”_

_“I won't be idle while you do that.”_

_His face drains of all color as he remembers what she'd done during the bell test. He would never underestimate Sakura's willingness to demolish her opponent ever again._

_“I'll see you at the gates, yeah?”_

_“Don't be late, idiot.”_

_He beams at her, “Someone has to stand in for Kaka-sensei.”_

_“I'm so sorry, Naruto.” She whispers, watching him leap across the roof tops. With guilt weighing her down she turns in the direction of the Hokage's tower. The wind dries the tears on her face as moves across the village, dreading the looming mission._

_'We still have team 10.'_

_'Doesn't change the fact that Sasuke's going to act he hasn't seen me for that last two and half years. ' Inner could never take the pain from these old wounds away, as she was just as hurt as Saku was by them._  

* * *

_“Y-YOU!?” Naruto shouted at a black haired nin leaning against one of the buildings pillars._

_She ignored it in favor of preventing herself from attacking the nin whose chakra was a playful kaleidoscope of colors. It was difficult for her to reign in the desire to unleash her killing intent on him. He was with the masked nin who attack her and Ino and one of Danzō's puppets; it helped that he was also the one who shown her kindness that night. “How do you know him, Naruto?”_

_“This fucker attacked me earlier.”_

_“Sorry, I wanted to gauge the abilities of my new team member.” The nin's expression didn't change, it made her skin crawl. “Guess its up to me to keep Dickless here, safe from harm.”_

_Her hand shot out and grabbed a fistful of Naruto's jacket, one eye on the nin, and the other on Jōnin Hatake's replacement. Neither one seemed to have moved a muscle. “He's on our team, its frowned upon to murder them. Even if they are assholes.”_

_“I happen to like people like you, friendly old hags.”_

_' **Restraint Release** ' ' **Inner Control: Distortion** ' Her focus was purely on preventing Naruto or their new team leader from seeing anything other than an unimpressed stare on her face. _

_“Like I said,” She mutters moving away from their team leader who'd moved closer, anticipating an outburst similar to Naruto's from her. “even if they are assholes we can't murder a team mate.”_

_“Anyways, the four of us do have a time sensitive mission to complete.” The jōnin sighs, “I'd like to toss you all in a cage until you've worked out your differences, but we don't have the time. Introduce yourselves.”_

_“Uzumaki Naruto.”_

_“Haruno Sakura.”_

_“I'm Sai.”_

_“And I'm Yamato. Now that we know each other, that's the end of that. I will briefly explain our mission. We'll travel to Tenchi Bridge where we will capture the Akasuki's spy within Orochimaru's organization and bring them back. There's a small chance to learn the whereabouts of Uchiha Sasuke and plan an assassination of Orochimaru and bring Sasuke back to the village. We are departing from the front gates in one hour, take that time to sort out equipment and gather any additional supplies. Dismissed.”_

_As one, her and Naruto leapt away from the meeting. Neither one of them spoke as they made their way toward the heart of the village. Her mind raced with the implications of this 'Sai' person being under Danzō's thumb and how that would change the difficulty of Naruto's mission._

_“He's such an asshole, that Sai. I hate him.” Naruto jumped down to street level as his whining continued, “Why do we even need him? Team Kakashi is fine with three people. Sai will never replace Sasuke.”_

_“True. Though even you aren't dumb enough to not see the resemblance, his voice, his mannerism, and his ability to piss you off as badly as Sasuke...”_

_“No way. He's got nothing on the bastard.”_

_Her smile is so wide it hurts. “Finally,” Naruto face morphs from disgruntled to wary the moment he sees her face. Her grin only gets wider. “you admit that Sasuke got under your skin. You are right, Sasuke is somewhat more of a bastard than Sai.”_

_“Aw come on Sakura, he totally is!”_  

* * *

" _What is it?” Sai's voice draws her attention from their surroundings and she focuses on Naruto just in time to catch the scowl forming on his face._

_She rolls her eyes, waiting for the inevitable explosion. Inner's count down does nothing to help keep her annoyance at bay. '3, 2, 1...'_

_“Please stop staring or I will be forced to hit you.”_

_“You're nothing like Sasuke.” He mumbles before shouting, “Everything you do pisses me off.”_

_“Its not out of malice, I just have a certain mindset for missions.” Sai shrugs, his tone as blank as his face._

_“I have no idea why the hell you're here, when all you do is enrage everyone!”_

_“Hey, hey. Knock it off.” Yamato barks as he spins to face them. His gaze shifts from Naruto to Sai, before landing on Naruto. “Do not speak like that. Its unprofessional and serves only to waste precious time. I thought Kakashi taught you the value of teamwork and cooperation in a team, especially his team no less. What is your deal?”_

_“This fake asshole is not a member of Team Kakashi, Sasuke is. He's just here to fill a gap.”_

_“I'm glad you view it that way.” Sai's lips twitch, almost as if he was trying to smile. “I'd rather not be compared to a weak incompetent whiny little bitch who ran off to be Orochimaru's dog, betraying Konoha in the process.”_

_“I'll make you eat shit, asshole-”_

_“-Naruto!” She steps in front of him, to shield him from Sai's assessing gaze. The nin did not need to pick up on how strongly Naruto felt about Sasuke. 'If he even could.' Inner whispers, but readies their chakra just in case._

_“Teamwork is the back bone of Konoha nin. Our bread and butter.” She moves forward, keeping herself in between Naruto and Sai. “Naruto's an idiot who says things he doesn't mean when he meets new people. Seeing as you're new to the team, Sai, please forgive the idiot.”_

_“S-Sakura...”_

_“At least one of you is sensible.”_

_She ignores both Naruto and Yamato as she shoots Sai her sweetest smile, letting out a hearty chuckle. He falls for it hook, line, and sinker. “Think nothing of it.”_

_Her fist flashes forward as Inner unleashes their killing intent, she has no idea what Sai sees nor does she care. She feels the colors darken as the playfulness turns to shock. He sails backward ten feet, his knees wobble as he tries to stand, but they refuse to hold him up. She stalks forward every line of her body tense as a bow string._

_The chakra strings snag on his black shirt, she jerks her arm sharply and the motion pulls him toward her. She catches him by the throat. “Don't you ever, bad mouth Sasuke in front of Naruto or next time, I'll turn you into a bloody pancake on the ground.”_

_She lets go of his throat and swipes her left hand over his cheek, healing the small fractures and bruising beneath the skin. “And then I'll heal you up and do it all over again until I'm satisfied you've learned your lesson. Okay?”_

_“You fooled me with a laugh.” Sai's tone is as close to shocked as she's ever heard it, she writes off the tinge of respect as her imagination._

_“Sasuke wasn't the same after Orochimaru's curse mark infected his chakra network, you don't get to speak about,” Her right hand closes over her left wrist, where the worst of the burn is. “him or stuff you don't know a fucking thing about.”_

_“I'll hold my tongue in the future...and keep in mind how well you use fake smiles.” He's smiling now, Sakura sighs._

_“Why are you smiling asshole?”_

_“It gets you out of trouble, but apparently not in this situation.”_

_The smell of earth and a hint of tree bark is her only warning, she switches herself with a pebble right next to Yamato. “_ **_Mokuton_ _:_ _Shichūrō"_**

_Wooden vines bursts from the ground underneath Naruto and Sai encasing them in a wooden box. She's glad she moved when she did, she had no desire to be trapped with Danzō's lapdog and Naruto. In fact she has no desire to be on this mission anymore._

_“Yamato as a fellow Jōnin,” Her whisper is near soundless and she relishes in the man's slight jump when she spoke. “I don't appreciate or take kindly to people using jutsu on me to make a point. I also don't go around advertising my rank. I like to let people underestimate me. So when you release Naruto and Danzō's spy, don't ask questions until we stop for the night.”_  

* * *

_She tuned out Sai's rambling about bonds as she watched Naruto and Sasuke. The intensity with which they gravitate toward each other was suffocating. The pile of rubble at her feet slowly turned into the river. Chakra smoke burns in her lungs, rotten wood and blazing clove overwhelm her senses._

_“If all that bullshit you're spewing is true...” The images of the valley of the end are ripped away by Naruto's voice. She watches the confusion spread across Sasuke's face. “then why I am I still breathing, huh?! Severed bonds my ass, Sasuke!”_

_“Its simple.” Sasuke shrugs as his eyes close. A moment later his gaze locks with Naruto's. “I wasn't going to be like him. No way was I going to get power doing what he wanted me to do.”_

_“What?”_

_“Forget it. I don't have to explain myself to you.” He says, his eyes flickering to her before fixating firmly on Naruto. “I spared your life on a whim of mine.”_

_' **Restraint Release** ' ' **Inner Control: Devil's Playground** ' All of her available chakra seeps into the ground, darkening the shadows shifting along the ground, depositing pockets of earth chakra throughout the area. Her hand shakes as she concentrate's medical chakra along her thumb. A single drop of blood hits the ground at the same time Inner finishes the seals.' **Kuchiyose**.' Daichi's chakra blends seamlessly into hers as he burrows to each of her pockets of earth chakra, he settles in the furthest pocket form her. _

_'How fucking dare he?! We're the reason he couldn't kill Naruto at the Valley. Inner snarls, threatening to bring the rest of Orochimaru's hideout down on their heads. They're ready, senses open for the slightest twitch of his crackling inferno. Its the barest flicker and she feels Daichi's chakra explode beneath the ground._

_“You're going to die for my whims this time.” The sword slides from the sheath, Sasuke's arm is moving in slow motion as he brings it down._

_She sees Sai shoot forward, his hand catching Sasuke's wrist and halting the descent of the sword. “Seems you're not as weak as I thought. You have good instincts. Naruto leaps up into the air, attempting to get distance. Yamato launches a tendril of wood at Sasuke._

_Spikes of black earth shoot from the ground at the same time Sasuke's chakra crackles. “ **Chidori Nagashi** ”_

_Sai and Naruto were too close to Sasuke, his **Chidori** sending them flying across the ground. Yamato was shielded by a black spike at his feet. As Daichi's chakra and her yin chakra recedes dispersing the lighting into her waiting pockets of earth chakra. She pulls her gloves on and cracks her knuckles. The sound draws Sasuke's attention, his eyes are blank, like he's looking right through her. _

_She is surprised it doesn't hurt as much when he does it, but she knows why it doesn't; Sasuke doesn't pretend to care about her, like Naruto does. Her mind is a haze of memories, watching as Naruto and Sasuke grew closer, the way they moved as well-oiled machines, always able to anticipate the other's every move, and knowing that there wasn't room for her._

_'Not this time, Saku.' Inner swells up as much as she can, Sakura releases a second seal, feeding Inner more chakra. Inner feeds more of it to Daichi and their earth construct. “Hello again, Uchiha.”_

_In a blink she flies forward, only to crash into Yamato's back. Her gaze flicks to Sasuke's sword, crackling with lighting, and back to Yamato's flimsy attempt to block with a kunai. The fight drains out of her as she withdraws her chakra from the ground, dismissing Daichi. She watches his blade stab into Yamato's shoulder._

_' **Distortion** ' The first tree cracks the ground behind Sasuke, its branches bare, its bark ash gray, and the soft pitter-patter of rain landing on the ground. More trees burst from the ground dozens upon dozens of the ash gray trees grow rapidly to blot out the sunlight. The soft pattering of rain grows in intensity, leaving those it hits stained red. The red rain is hot, searing the skin, and stinging the nose with metal. _

_Yamato jerks his head to the side after a loud thud, he recoils from the severed arm flopping around, groping for something to hold onto. Screams slowly fill the air, though distorted by the trees, they are hers; the last time she yelled for the boy she had a crush on. A deluge of blood is dumped onto Sasuke's head and he looks up, only to **Shunshin** out from under the falling body. _

_Naruto's body hits the ground with enough force to crack the stones, his orange jacket is no longer a bright eyesore. The hole in his chest weeps a steady river of blood. Then everything stops, the rain, the screaming, the unending rise of ash gray trees, and endlessly groping severed arms. There is nothing, an empty expanse of black. It moves inward consuming the scant inches of space between them and the walls; suffocating._

_She moves to Yamato's side and places her hand over his wounded shoulder. The pulse of medical chakra breaks him free of her killing intent. The man's eyes are filled with shadows as he glances from her to Sasuke's frozen form and back. “Seems like you're the same as them.”_

_“What?”_

_“I'm not a fucking princess that needs to be protected.” Her voice is hard and unyielding, but it wavers with her tears; she is so tired of being protected and undermined._

_With her work done she reels her chakra in and steps away from Yamato. 'Inner.' Her yin chakra gathers into the farthest corner of her mind as she watches Naruto and Sasuke ignore her. This time it doesn't hurt when she steps back, disappearing into the shadow of the tunnel._

_The rages that sweeps through her at the sight of Orochimaru's appearance has no effect on the apathy clogging up her mind; Yamato would just get in her way as would Naruto if she tried to avenge her parents. Naruto's tears aren't enough, Sai's declaration of lending them a hand isn't enough, but Yamato's proud gaze shatters everything._

* * *

_“I see.” Tsunade's frown is half-worry, half-sympathy, as her gaze takes them all in. “Well?”_

_“I'm not giving up.” Naruto says with conviction._

_Sai and Yamato nod their agreement. She can't bring herself to, but she pulses her chakra so Tsunade can see Inner nodding for her._

_“Good. I have another mission for three of you. Chūnin Haruno is needed to fill in at the hospital as we're short staffed at the moment. Get out of here. Chūnin Haruno stay behind.”_

_Yamato and Sai tense, but Naruto proceeded to drag Sai out the door. At a nod from Tsunade, Yamato finally left._

_“Shizune clear my schedule and give me a bottle of Sake.” As Shizune opened her mouth to argue, Tsunade cut her off. “Its not for me, its for Sakura. Send a messenger for Ino.”_

_Shizune set the paperwork in her hands on the desk and vanished out the door._

_“Sakura.”_

_Inner shook her head, “Saku's not...she's not handling things well. It wasn't even seeing Sasuke that triggered the episode. Its just, Yamato pulled the same bullshit Kaka, Sasu, and Naru have. He protected her from Sasuke. Didn't take her seriously when she told him, she was a jōnin. Naru ignored all of her attempts to pull him out of his Sasu funk on the way back.”_

_“May I?”_

_Inner nodded for Saku's Shishou to proceed, grateful that the women remembered to ask before guiding Saku to the red couch. Inner was relieved when Saku grabbed one of the pillows and hugged it to her chest before laying down. Saku flinched as the blanket was draped over them, but Inner almost cheered when Saku whispered, “Thank you, shishou.”_

_“Inner, I know its takes more than being treated like she's helpless to put her in this state. What happened?”_

_“Sai. He was a part of the Root team that attacked Saku and Ino-pig when they found the Uzushio archives.”_

_“With all due respect Hokage-sama,” Ino's voice loosened the vise around Inner's throat. “you need to back off or you'll risk making her episode worse.”_

_Tsunade sighs and turns, catching the bottle of sake, Ino throws at her. The sight makes Saku snort as she sits up, patting the open spot on her left for Ino to take. Tsunade grumbles about them both being brats as she takes a swig from the bottle and sits in her armchair. Once they're settled Inner flares their chakra, activating the seals._

_“In those last files I retrieved from Root HQ. Danzō's been hunting the few remaining Uzushio survivors down and either, killing them or recruiting them for Root. He's been out right killing off the Haruno scattered across the elemental countries.” Inner feels Saku shudder and press into Ino more._

_Tsunade tossed back the rest of the sake bottle and flung it. The bottle sailed out the open window of her office. “Damn it, Sakura just because you can compartmentalize your emotions to the extreme, thanks to your bloodline and mastering your **Chakra Cloak** doesn't mean you should do it to get you through a difficult mis-”_

_“That's only part of what caused it; I've been working through my anger about that with Raidō and Ino. Its just...its like I'm a ghost, I scream and wail like a banshee, but they don't ever notice. I thought that maybe this one time things would be different.” Sakura shoos Inner to the back of her mind again, she hates the way Ino and Tsunade exhale in relief as she does this._

_“Kura-”_

_“-please don't, Ino. I'm sick and fucking tired of crying over those assholes.”_

_“You haven't been this bad since the Uchiha almost killed you and Ino.” Tsunade's voice is soft. “Its hard being in the shadow of such a strong bond. Its the kind of bond that easily marks them as soulmates even before the Dreaming. Neither Oro or Rai even noticed I was there for the Dreaming until the very end when our triad formed.”_

_“They still ignored me unless I was in danger or about to sock them one in the balls.”_

_“Shishou.”_

_“Ma'am.”_

_Tsunade waves them off and shoots them a small smile for lack of judgment in their tones._

“ _What those soulmate books don't tell you, is that even with a bond formed from the Dreaming, it takes work for it to solidify. If you don't solidify it, it can be severed and you're free to fall in love with whoever you want. Dan saw me more than Oro or Rai ever did even though they were my soulmates. I don't think either of them noticed their bond to me was weakened until Dan died. By then Jiraiya was off learning senjutsu from his frogs and Orochimaru was elbow deep in experimenting on children. Jiraiya's is getting stronger, but I haven't been able to feel Oro's for thirty years, give or take a couple.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jutsu List  
> Inner Control: Distortion - The Inner sharpens their Restraint's killing intent and creates an image to project over their Restraint to instill fear in their enemies.  
> Mokuton: Shichūrō; Wood Release: Four-Pillar Prison  
> Inner Control: Devil's Playground - Creates an underground chakra construct that allows the restraint to control the above and below ground terrain of the surrounding area. The size of the construct and ease of control depends on the size of the restraint's chakra reserves and their mastery of earth chakra.  
> Kuchiyose; Summoning - a ninja can summon a contracted animal from another dimension or a creature, to help them fight.  
> Chidori Nagashi; Lighting Current.  
> Distortion - The restraint crafts multiple illusions from their memories in their Killing Intent to immobilize their opponent.  
> Shunshin - Body Flicker a ninja can move short to long distances at an almost untraceable speed.
> 
> Chakra reference list:  
> Sasuke - crackling inferno  
> Yamato - Earth and the smell of tree bark  
> Sai - playful colors. 
> 
> I would love to know what you liked and what you thought was lacking, I won't bite your head off for helping me improve my writing. I will, however, not tolerate any Naru/Sasu stans attacking me for daring to examine their faves and trying to explore their character flaws. 
> 
> Chapter title taken from Startset's song "Gravity Of You". Its an awesome song, would definitely recommend giving it a listen if you haven't heard of Starset.  
>  __  
>  **Proceed at your own risk.**  
>  No, your eyes are not deceiving you, it is a new chapter. 
> 
> I am so tired of yelling about this, so I'm not going to get into it. I really can't fucking stand Naruto after the Gaara rescue arc. It excludes one of the main characters, might as well be chopped fucking liver, while everyone else gets moments of bad assery. Seriously, I'm starting to wonder how many characters would be alive if Sakura were allowed to actually show us that she is a medic whose surpassed Tsunade, but no. Everyone dies because Sakura doesn't get to do anything. *Le sigh* 
> 
> That masked nin was Sai. 
> 
> Anyways, yes that is a summon for Sakura, no it is not a slug; she is still contracted to the slugs, but I'm not about the whole 'summon only a part of the same damn slug every fucking time'. Nope so Sakura does have her own slug summons who are also bad asses. Though I will say there was a little bit of tension between her slugs and her family's summons when she contracted with them. Ya'll remember that one filler episode with lizards terrorizing a castle...yeah...I wasn't going to let perfectly good summons be lost because Naruto's a dumb ass. IF Sasu gets two summon contracts, you bet yer ass, I'm going to give Sakura her own. [ __ **Cause you know, every else decided to become medics and render Sakura even more useless by taking away the only thing she's really fucking good at.** ]
> 
> Now we get a glimpse into the drastic side effects to Sakura's bloodline and her mastery of her chakra cloak. Extreme compartmentalization, its made even worst by the fact that Inner Sakura already serves that function and if Sakura shuts Inner out, it causes Sakura to begin dissociating from everything. Though Inner Sakura can pull Sakura back from it after awhile, its faster with other people helping from the outside. Cause Inner Sakura is Sakura. ~~Honestly I have no idea what the hell I'm talking about and have googled both of these concepts. Spent a lot of time researching them too.~~ Basically it boils down to: Sakura's bloodline is not good for her mental health.  
> 


	9. Invisible; A Growing Divide

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Young Sakura gives up on team 7 and gives Hatake Kakashi an earful about his failures as her sensei. Naruto and Sasuke learn without a shadow of doubt that they know absolutely nothing about their third soulmate.

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or its characters. I own only the plots/ideas/situations that I have placed the characters in and my OCs.** _

* * *

“ _Thanks, I think I have the concept, Ugly dog.”_

_She easily side-stepped Naruto as he tried to block her from getting to Sai. Sai went flying down the street and crashed into a wooden fence. “Don't mention it, Doll-face.”_

_“Haha, oh man, that's gol-” Naruto yelped as her hand landed on his shoulder, but she did nothing more than squeeze it a little harder than normal._

_“Don't antagonize our teammate, Naruto.” She smiled at the wariness in Sai's eyes as he rejoined them. “Now lets get a move on, my shift at the hospital starts at noon.”_  

* * *

_The grip she has on his chart makes the plastic creak as she starts her assessment. She ignores the way his eye bores into her. Eventually his focus shifts to Naruto and Sai. “So this is Sai?”_

_“Yeah, he's not Sasuke, but he grows on you after a while.” Naruto said as he rubbed his bruised shoulder._

_“Its nice to meet you.”_

_“Thank you.” Sai nods, his left hand rubbing the growing bruise on his cheek._

_“Chūnin Haruno?”_

_“Yes?”_

_“Did they get in a fight?”_

_She shakes her head, “Nope. We've had time to work out our differences and we are really good friends now.”_

_The look in his eye, gives her pause, like he's debating on calling her out on her bullshit. After another moment or two, he shrugs and turns back to focus on Naruto and Sai._

_“Kakashi-sensei, our mission...”_

_“I've heard everything from Yamato, its a shame about Sasuke.” His tone made her eyebrow tick. She forced herself to calm down and finish the diagnostic scan._

_“He was so strong and we don't have a lot of time left to get him back.”_

_“Seems to me like you'll need to get stronger.”_

_Sakura bites her tongue over the words she wants to say. She was more than aware of anyone, of just how strong Sasuke had grown. The half a dozen scars, emotional and physical that littered her body were proof enough that Orochimaru's lapdog Kabuto drugged Sasuke._

_“From what I observed, his rate of growth wasn't wholly natural and he was a lot stronger than Naruto and Sai.” Her eyes remain downcast, so she doesn't see Hatake's eye narrow at the bitterness in her tone; she hadn't gotten to assess her new level of strength against Sasuke because of Yamato's interference._

_“Its possible to get stronger at a faster rate.”_

_“Yes, but how?” She asks, more for Naruto's benefit than herself. In the back of her mind there's a kernel of hope that he will include her, now that Naruto is here._

_“I wasn't sitting on my hands while you were going after our wayward teammate.” He says, his lone eye moving from Icha Icha Tactics to Naruto. “Something came to me a couple of days ago. However, this particular training is better suited to Naruto. In fact, I'd go so far as to say, only Naruto can do it.”_

_Her heart freezes in her chest, her chakra roils, and she nearly breaks the chart over his head, but Inner's recitation of 'First do no harm' quails the urge to injure her patient. She continues to breath in and out in a steady rhythm as she watches Naruto's face light up at Kakashi's next words. “This training would make you stronger than myself in a sense.”_

_She steps away from his bedside and moves toward the door, jotting down his vitals and current chakra levels in his chart. Sakura tunes out his explanation to Naruto about the training as she mixes his next dose of medicine. Her motions still as she smells honeyed grass and a blaze of warmth threatens to smother her. She breathes a little easier when team ten barge into Hatake's hospital room. Asuma spares her a brief glance before his eyes narrow and he glares at Hatake._

_“What,” The sheer animosity in his tone is reflected in Shikamaru, Chōji, and Ino's expressions as they enter behind Asuma.“couldn't the great child prodigy come up with training for the medic on his team?”_

_“Its okay, Asuma-sensei, I'm use to it.” She says, heading for the door, ignoring Naruto's confused face, Sai's frown, and the sharp intake of breath from Hatake at the respect in her tone toward Asuma. “I'll swing by Yakiniku, after finishing my rounds.”_  

* * *

His anger dissipates into thin air as the snatches of memories slow to a crawl before the endless black expanse is all he can see. His eyes shift from one end of the wall to the other, there is no trace of Inner Sakura anywhere in the space. There's a hole eating away at his heart, his breathing is shallow and with every breath his panic grows; he's not getting enough air.

A hand lands on his shoulder and he forces himself to take a deep breath, and then another, and another. Before long he hears a soft voice, “that's it, take another one. Good. That's very good.”

“Sasu?” He whispers, his tone wavering as there is no response.

“Are you going to try to hit me again if I say 'yes'.”

“No.”

“Good. Now keep breathing or you'll just get sucked back into Inner Sakura's emotions and we'll have to continue. We both need a breather.”

Naruto breathes focusing on the heat he feels from where Sasuke is holding onto him. His mind is whirling from the chaotic storm of memories and emotions. The blackness is unsettling as its both smothering him with warmth and chilling him to the bone.

“Why did you both lie to me about the Valley?” He doesn't resist when Sasuke pulls him closer, and wraps an arm around his waist.

“I honestly did not remember what I had done until a few weeks later. That fucker Kabuto said it was a side effect of using the 2rd stage of the curse mark for the first time. I suppose there was enough residual nature chakra to blur the edges of my memories of the event.” Sasuke sighs, “All I could remember was her ridiculous pink hair and that she was somehow blinding my sharingan. I didn't want to re-live that fight again with Orochimaru and Kabuto so close by. As for Sakura, I can only guess why she kept it from you. Its probably because you didn't ask her about it. You only fixated on me and getting stronger to come rescue me.”

“She could have said something or tried to tell me about it. At the very least she should have told me about Uzushio as soon as Danzō and ROOT had been taken down.”

“With how much crazy shit that happened after you took down Kakuzu, Pein attacked the village, the summit was called, Obito crashed it, masquerading as Madara, we all fought each other, my trial happened, you were sent to turtle island, and then Zetsu and Kabuto kick started the fourth shinobi war, when the hell would she have had the time?”

“But-”

“-no buts. Even if she'd found the time in between helping collect evidence against Danzō, creating medical fūinjutsu, fighting tooth and nail to keep us together, and saving the bijū and their jinchūriki, would you have bothered to listen?!” Sasuke's voice is little more than a growl as he stands up, pushing Naruto off of him at the same time. “Whether we meant to or not, we abandoned her for 2 and a half years. Kakashi fucked off as soon as the 2 students he gave a shit about were gone. Is it any wonder that we know little to nothing about who Haruno Sakura actually is? Is it really so hard to believe that she gave up trying to talk to you about this stuff when all you have done is ignore her?”

“She still should have told me after Danzō was out of the picture.” He mutters, ignoring how much Sasuke's questions hurt his heart.

“Yes, she should have. I'm angry at her about that, but it doesn't change the fact that she was attacked, probably more than once, by Danzō's Root agents before you and me left the village; not to mention she was trying to tell you about it since it happened. She wasn't withholding the information to hurt you, she was protecting Uzushio's legacy and herself.”

“I thought she was my friend.”

“Hey,” Sasuke's voice is soft as he moves closer to Naruto. “you know she is.”

“T-Then why wouldn't she tell me about my clan? Why would she lie with fake smiles and laughter all the time.”

It takes everything in him to not grab Naruto by the shoulders and shake him. “Sages shakujō! Its her clan too and she withholds one scrap of information from you about it, and its unforgivable. I've almost killed you several times and you still demand morning cuddles from me every day. I literally shoved my hand through your chest with every intention of killing you and still, you hold me after I wake up covered in sweat and shaking from my nightmares.” His eyes close against the images his sharingan show him. “Because she knows you'd never see through them.”

The blackness crashes over them once more.

* * *

_She pushes the on-going mission and the periodic status reports that Inner sends, to the back of her mind as she lands at the edge of the biggest out laying training field in this area of the forest. Naruto's chakra and Kurama's hang heavily in the air. She pulses her chakra to announce her presence before moving closer to where she sensed Naruto's chakra._

_“I brought you Ichiraku's Naruto.”_

_“You're my favorite person in the whole world.”_

_'We both know that's not true.' The effort it takes to keep herself from saying the words is harder than before. “Yeah, yeah, we both know you love the ramen more than me.”_

_“That hurts.” His hands clutch his chest as he topples over and lands with a dull thud. Mild irritation replaces the fond exasperation she used to have for his antics._

_When he looks up, she plasters a smile on her face and chuckles, before handing him the scroll. “Fifteen bowls, don't eat all of them in one sitting.”_

_“F-Fifteen?”_

_She nods as his hands grip the storage scroll and begins stroking it like its a bar of gold. Her irritation skyrockets when lightning bolts flash across her eyes. Her chakra flares and she reappears behind Naruto, Hatake's hand is hanging in the air where her shoulder would have been._

_“There's also some take out from Yakiniku for Yamato in there.”_

_“Nothing for Kakashi-sensei?”_

_“I was in such a rush, what with being on-call at the hospital and the four teams that were ambushed on their missions returning early this morning,” She shrugs, “I forgot about him.”_

_Hatake's lone eyebrow twitches at her statement. She can't help but add. “If he's hungry, he can go get his own food...or he's welcome to one of my ration bars.”_

_“Ah, that's a generous offer, but I'm not hungry.”_

_“Well suit yourself.” She takes a step back and turns to leave, her senses hyper aware of Hatake's eye following her movements._

_“Chūnin Haruno,” She stops at his inquiry, but doesn't turn to face him. There's a touch of hesitance in his tone when he continues, “would you mind if I accompanied you back to the village?”_

_“Yes, but its not like I can stop you from doing whatever you want.” She says, glancing over her shoulder to glare at him; Naruto is too absorbed in his first bowl of ramen to pick up on the steadily growing tension between the two of them._

_“Naruto listen to Yamato.”_

* * *

_Once she reaches the path back to the village she elects to walk rather than run through the trees. If they took the ninja route their discussion would carry on into the village and she had no desire to spend more time with Hatake than absolutely necessary. When Hatake catches up to her, his breathing is a little rough and she ignores the medic in her that feels sympathy for him. 'He's not as recovered as he let on.'_

_“Well?”_

_“I wanted to apologize for what I said in the hospital after the invasion.” He says._

_The silence presses in on them. There's a gentle breeze rustling the leaves, birds chirp, and branches creak. Minutes pass as she hears all of the forest's sounds, but Hatake Kakashi says nothing else nor does it seem as if he will say anything else._

_“That's it?” She scoffs. “No, 'I'm sorry that I didn't do the one thing you've asked of me' or 'sorry I never thought of devising a training method for anyone other than Naruto'.”_

_“I'm not good at this.” He sighs, visibly deflating as he rubs the back of his neck._

_“Clearly. Why do you think I stopped at just two of the major asshole things you've done to me? I can forgive those, because I expected those things of you. I'm use to it.” She could see the horror dawning in the solitary eye, the one she's had a growing desire to pluck out since Naruto left the village, as her tears fall._

_“I'm used to being overlooked and ignored, its been that way my entire life. Did you not think it would make the team dynamics worse when you threw my grasp of chakra control in Naruto and Sasuke's faces? It drove a wedge between me and them. They bonded over the struggle while I was left out. We shouldn't have even been learning tree climbing, we should have already learned it! You constantly pitted those two against each other. You forged them into a pack with you as its leader. As for me, I was the lone wolf left to rot. And then,” She shunshin's closer, getting into his face, he stumbles back into the tree behind him at her approach. “you do the one thing I will never forgive you for. You told Yamato to coddle me, to protect me.”_

_Her hands move slowly through each sign, her chakra gradually building, but Hatake doesn't attempt to stop her. ' **Ninja art: Cognitive Cascade** ' The genjutsu she developed for the Yamanaka clan, for Ino mostly,hits Hatake like Gai-sensei's **Dynamic Entry**. _

_“Kai.” The word is a breathless gasp as Hatake slides down the tree's trunk, eye wild and shifting back and forth endlessly searching. “I-”_

_“-don't. Don't pretend, don't make excuses, and don't you dare give me your fucking pity.” She hisses, cutting him off and trying not to distract Inner from the mission with all the emotions whirling in her head. “You're worse than trash Hatake Kakashi and you only have yourself to blame.”_

_'Saku we need to switch now!' The urgency in Inner's tone spurs her into motion and as the last of the cherry blossom petals hit the ground, Hatake Kakashi hangs his head and cries._

* * *

_Her hands form the sign. ' **Kawarimi** ' She gags as the smell of bile and blood assaults her nose. The dragon hisses weakly and the ever present warmth is fading. ' **Earth Release: Multiple Sand Clones** ' All of her senses are focused on the flow of chakra from her seals, her hands blur through the signs faster than ever before, the blood seal unfurls along her left heel as she presses it into the ground. ' **Kuchiyose** '._

_“Later ya shitheads.” As her sand clone's hand closes around his ankle, inscribing her seal into his leg, the akasuki member topples out of the cloud of smoke._

_“Seems like you shit for brains can get enough of m-” The akasuki member's eyes widen as blood bursts from their mouth._

_Shikamaru's yin chakra rips through the man's stomach as her seal grows rapidly, carrying her sand throughout his body and liquefying his organs as it goes. She raises her left foot, gathering chakra to the base of her heel, and slams it down. The ground splinters into a thousand pieces, the man falls into the pool of acid Shinobu left behind. Her senses are alert as she waits for his chakra signature to fade before bolting to Asuma-sensei's side._

_“Agent-”_

_She slapped the first tag over the largest puncture wound, cutting him off, “Jōnin Sarutobi, with all do respect, stop talking and save your strength.”_

_“How do you have these medical stasis seals?”_

_“Jōnin Haruno has been working tirelessly to provide as many of these as possible for my unit's mission. Agent Kraken and Angler will be here shortly to get him to Konoha as fast as possible. They will take him directly to Jōnin Haruno for treatment.” Behind the mask, and layers of her family's seal based genjutsu, she smiles at Ino's protectiveness._

_“Should've have known that's why she wasn't assigned to any of the platoons. Her and her damn fūinjutsu.” It takes everything in her to not giggle at the hint of jealousy in Ino's voice._

_“Chūnin Nara, there's no need to remind vigilant. I dissolved the akasuki member in acid and monitored his chakra until it stopped. Nothing is immortal.”_

* * *

_The edge of her vision is blurry and she has to grip the edge of the door to the surgical wing to stay up right. Her body sways and she pushes even more into the door, trying desperately to not fall on her ass. It takes a moment to register that Ino is guiding her into the waiting room where team 8, the rest of team 10, and half of the Sarutobi clan are. “Asuma-sensei's stable. His vitals are good and held for the last hour of his surgery.”_

_She braces for impact as her team rushes at her, not surprising in the least, Ino pulls her into her arms, Shika and Chōji follow suit when they reach her and Ino. Its isn't until she whispers, 'He's gonna live' that the dam breaks and they're one big sobbing mess of teenagers._

_“I'm s-sorry for anything I said about your stupid fūinjutsu being a waste of time, Forehead” Ino sobs, trying to keep quiet so she doesn't disturb any of the patients in the recovery wing. “never stop making new ones, ever.”_

_“W-Wouldn't dream of it, Ino-pig.”_

_“H-Hey.” Kiba wormed his way into their group hug, Shino was content to hover at the edges, with Kurenai-sensei and Hinata._

_Sakura felt Akamaru's nose press into her left hand and she obliged his requested for ear scratches. It was his way of making sure she was okay; him and Kiba were the worst worry worts of team 8. “It's just mild chakra exhaustion. I'll be fine in a couple of days, Akamaru.”_  

* * *

_“Agent Skink,” Her shishou sighs before dismissing her ANBU guards and activating her seals. “take off the mask, brat. I can't do this today.”_

_She complies and with a trickle of chakra her dad's mask is safely sealed away. The last month was hard for both of them, her shishou sending her on more and more recovery missions, keeping the council from confining Naruto to the village, and their efforts to identify all of Danzō's root agents wasn't going well; neither of them wanted to involve Sai as they knew what Danzō's fūinjutsu did to traitors._

_“I need you to save Itachi. Not because I want to butter up his brother when you finally haul his ass in, but because he deserves better from this village.”_

_“Understoo-”_

_“-in the likely event that genin Uchiha is there, you will prioritize his brother's care over him. You may stabilize any of genin Uchiha's critical injuries, but you are to leave him in the area.” Tsunade cuts Sakura off, hating the seething rage that ripples through Inner Sakura._

_“Yes Ma'am.”_

_Hazel eyes watch as the stark white mask with blue lines curving outward from the mask's mouth settles into place. Tsunade knew that this mission would be hard for her, it didn't make it hurt any less when the brat went from relaxed to the picture of professionalism in response to her orders. “Sakura, for what its worth, I'm sorry you can't bring him back for Naruto.”_

_“When his trial is over, I want to be re-assigned permanently to team 10. Sai deserves to have a team to call his own.”_

_Sakura turned away from her shishou's desk and vanished. She reappeared in her room at Raidō's. ' **Restraint Release; Chakra clone** ' When Inner stood before her, she unsealed her equipment and moved toward her closet. “I'll call you back when I find them.” _

_'Saku...'_

_“Its fine. It's not like I ever intend to tell him or he'll find out in the Dreaming, either way it won't change anything. He's still not going to care and I don't ever want him too.”_

_Her vision goes blurry as she pulls out her storage scrolls, sealing them into her dad's seals. She remembers the day she inspired him to design them. She'd just turned eight and her chakra was large enough for her to make a storage scroll._  

* * *

_"Dad.” She said, concentrating extra hard on keeping her brush strokes even._

_“Hmm? Did you need help, little Kura?” When she growled at him for using that nickname she was eight, so not little anymore, he only laughed and ruffled her hair._

_“No. I was just wondering why you and mom don't just use storage seals to carry all your equipment. I mean wouldn't it be better to use our chakra control to pull our weapons out of thin air to confuse an enemy? Most high rank shinobi can guess what kind of weapons and jutsu their opponent uses because they can see weapon pouches and scroll pockets on vests.”_

_She saw the light bulb go off in his eyes and then she squealed when he snatched her up and spun her around. Giggles burst out of her as she spread her arms and pretended to fly. After a few more rotations he set her down before rushing to grab his sealing paper and ink. Her mom found them both passed out on the floor, surrounded by the dozens of pages with the new seals, when she got back with the groceries._

* * *

_'Fucking Uchiha.' It had been way too close to get Itachi sealed and get far enough away from the battlefield to avoid detection from Zetsu._

_'Are you sure its a good idea to take him there?'_

_'I refuse to be the one who has to pull Itachi's head out of his ass. That's not my mission.'_

_A bead of sweat rolled down the side of her face as she kept the steady flow of medical chakra over the new lung in Itachi's chest. The disease hadn't spread from his lungs yet and it was a simple matter of transplanting new ones into him. It took several more minutes before the coils in this lung to swell with Itachi's chakra. After one more thorough diagnostic scan of his tenketsu and once over of his other wounds, she sealed him back into her stasis seal._

_'Is Naruto still sulking over Sasuke?'_

_'Yep.' Inner's next words make her groan, 'We have another priority recovery mission. Shishou's already dispatched Ino and me to come to you.'_

_'Who and where?'_

_'Jiraiya and Ame.'_

_The exhaustion weighting on her from the operation is driven away. Her blood seal unfurls along her arm before she slams her hand down on the grass. Daichi's chakra envelops her a second before his tail curls around her in his customary welcome. “You are not whole, summoner, and you are exhausted.”_

_“I know, but I have two missions to complete and I need you to travel to the Sanctuary with a very important patient to complete one of them.” She smiles and melts into the warmth of Daichi's tail. There are times when she can't believe how lucky she got on that mission, nor how effortless it was for Daichi to fit into her fighting style._

_“Of course, where are you traveling to this time? Will your Anchor be with you?”_

_“It'll be impossible to complete the recovery without her.” She says to reassure him. Daichi was her only back up the first time it happened; without him she'd have died._

_“How far?”_

_“Two weeks give or take a day or two. I've already got a way for her to get in and out without drawing attention to ourselves.”_

_“Good, I will be very cross if anything happens to either of you.”_

_“I still have Shinobu when we run into trouble.” She said, knowing better than anyone they'd run into trouble sooner or later._

_Daichi's tongue flickers from his mouth as he hums, “She is a lot more dangerous then I expected one of them to be.”_

_“I'm just glad you two get along as well as you do.”_

_“We both care a great deal about your well-being and she stood up to her progenitor to remain your summon.”_

_“Kura.”_

_Daichi's tail propels her toward Ino. She lets out a squawk and glares at the giant lizard as Ino squeezes the breath from her lungs. He sticks his forked tongue out at her. They stay like that until Inner has settled in to her tenketsu; they'd discovered it was easier to re-integrate, and less painful, the shorter the distance between them._

_“Is he coming too?” Ino asked as she reluctantly lets her go._

_“No, he's here to finish my other mission. I just need to give him the scrolls and then we can jump right in.”_  

* * *

The black expanse was mocking him with its stillness. He's been screaming for Inner Sakura to show herself for the last ten minutes. His eyes burn as the blood drips steadily down his face. “You can't stay like this forever?! I will find away to drag you out of this wall and rip your throat out.”

His throat was raw and if they'd been corporeal, the bones in his hands would be broken from beating on the black chakra. Sakura had no right to keep this from him. His brother was alive and well, things from the war were finally starting to make sense. The massive beating the Jubi took, its equally massive bijūdama narrowly missing their headquarters.

Then he'd seen the fruits of Sakura's training under Tsunade come full circle, and she'd summoned her monster lizard, and there on its back was...

“Answer me!” He pushes chakra through his tenketsu. ' _ **Chidori Nagashi**_ '. “Why didn't you tell me you saved them?! That you saved them the night of the massacre?! How could you let me believe I was all alone?!”

* * *

_“Finally.” He shivered at the sound of her voice. In the next instant he saw the purple diamond appear in the center of her forehead. A moment later thick black lines spread outward and sweep down her face. Blood red lines spread over her palm before she slams it onto the ground, a cloud of smoke obscures his vision._

_When the cloud settles, a huge lizard towers over the alliance, and on its back stand dozens of ninja. His sharingan burned with the symbol of his clansmen. His breath is snatch from his lungs at the two figures on her summon's head, he'd know them anywhere, their chakras the only two he'd ever memorized. Beside him he heard Naruto gasp and his eyes slide to the third and forth figures standing on his mother's left. Vivid red hair swayed in the wind, before, “Better late than never, eh, Miko?”_

_“Shut it, Red. We have a war to win.”_  

* * *

“That was Sakura's summon?” The confusion in his voice is enough to disrupt the memory shift before it took over completely.

“But how could...” His blue eyes go wide at the implications of what he was seeing and what he though he saw in that meadow. “her fūinjutsu.”

“Sasu.”

“Not now, dobe. I'm going to kill Inner Sakura if its the last thing I do.”

“She didn't know.”

“The hell she didn't.”

“Damn it Sasuke, quit being a hypocrite and listen to me before we both do something we'll both regret.” He shot back.

Naruto kept his distance as he did not feel like getting flash fried, especially since Kurama and Sakura were cross with him. It took several long moments before Sasuke's chakra settled down and his _**Chidori**_ wasn't running rampant. He moved close when Sasuke collapsed to the ground.

“Why would she not tell me,” His voice is so soft and vulnerable to Naruto's ears, “how could she let me keep hurting her like I was. I would have been...”

“Nicer? Less of a bastard? You would've started to realize she wasn't a ghost? That she was worthwhile of your attention?” He said, the questions just as much for him as they were for Sasuke. They tasted like ash on his tongue. He was just as guilty of hurting Sakura even worst than Sasuke had.

It tears at him to hear Sasuke breakdown, he throws his arms around him and holds his bastard as he sobs. His own tears run down his face. That moment when facing down the Jubi had nearly broken him, he hadn't known who'd summoned the komodo dragon nor how his mom and godfather had been on its head.

“She didn't know she was going to do it.” He hears Sasuke snarl and attempt to pull away, but he holds fast to his bastard. “Stop, just listen. When I was out all night trying to master tree walking, Haku stumbled across me. When he woke me up, I saw someone with pink hair appear at the edge of my vision. I dismissed it because I was still half asleep and later Sakura came to find me. Over the years I kept having the same dream of meeting Haku in the woods and seeing Sakura, but she was a lot older...I think she created a seal to travel back in time.”

“You're insane. There's no way t-that should be possible.”

“This is Sakura we're talking about, she's a Haruno and an Uzumaki, I don't think she knows the meaning of the word impossible when it comes to fūinjutsu.”

Inner Sakura watched them from behind the wall. She wanted to go to them and explain, but that would do more harm then good. Like always, they did not need or want her around. Naruto continues to soothe Sasuke and talk him down, she fights off the encroaching tide of memories, giving them more time before the Dreaming pulled them back in.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Jutsu List**  
>  Ninja art: Cognitive Cascade - a genjutsu that injects their yin chakra into their target's body and forces them to re-live the most painful emotions or memories the user has experienced.  
> Kawarimi - Substitution  
> Kuchiyose; Summoning - a ninja can summon a contracted animal from another dimension or a creature, to help them fight.  
> Chidori Nagashi; Lighting current. 
> 
>  
> 
> I would love to know what you liked and what you thought was lacking, I won't bite your head off for helping me improve my writing. I will, however, not tolerate any Naru/Sasu stans attacking me for daring to examine their faves and trying to explore their character flaws.
> 
>  
> 
> __  
> **Proceed at your own risk.**  
>   
> 
> As you could probably already tell I have a disliking for Hatake Kakashi. I really don't like him because he just up and abandons Sakura. That's not to say that I don't see why he is the way he is, but its no excuse for being a piss poor teacher for team 7, Sakura in particular. Sadly the only reason he even tried to apologize to Sakura is because Asuma gave him an earful for ignoring Sakura. Like fucking for real, why the hell would he only think of a training method for Naruto?! Moving on. 
> 
> Yes, Sakura invented a time travel seal or rather a time jump seal. I will go more into those later on in the story. Also if ya were paying attention, please be reminded that I did not specify when Naruto and Sasuke were combing the ruins of Uzushio for any information on his clan... 
> 
> Also yes Uchiha Mikoto and Uzumaki Kushina are alive thanks to Sakura's time jump seal.


	10. The Freedom To Chose; Never Enough

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Young Sakura attempts to help young Naruto grieve after Jiraiya's death and is pushed away. Instead of going to Ino as she normally would, she goes to the one place that brings her comfort; the first Hokage's head on the mountain. 
> 
> Naruto and Sasuke are overcome by strong emotions in response to Sakura keeping the fact that their families are alive from them and accuse her of somehow keeping their families away from them for longer than they suspected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy this monster of a chapter. Its 11 pages, I normally write at least 8-7 pages at minimum for each chapter. 
> 
> The jutsu list and chakra reference list is in the actual chapter because my end note/rant is massive once again.  
> I would love to know what you liked and what you thought was lacking, I won't bite your head off for helping me improve my writing. I will, however, not tolerate any Naru/Sasu stans attacking me for daring to examine their faves and trying to explore their character flaws.
> 
> __  
> **Remember no one is forcing you to read the end notes.**  
> 

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or its characters. I own only the plots/situation/ideas that I have place the characters in and my OCs.** _

* * *

_“Hello? Earth to Sakura.”_

_'Its Ino.'_

_She doesn't hear either of them as she dips her brush into the bowl; it took weeks to get the right ratio of blood and chakra infused ink mixed for the sealing matrix. In the back of her mind, she knows what Inner and Ino are seeing, and she knows they hate it. Her eyes are hollow, her skin is chalk white, and the air around her shimmers with the village's chakra._

_The chakra is blistering, an all consuming inferno that blankets the streets of the abandoned Uchiha compound. She remembers the warmth and intensity from each and every Uchiha in the police force, they were fire itself. Her brush stills as Inner gives into the pull of the Uchiha's chakras. Their ancient seals resist them, but she's a Haruno and a Uzumaki, her seals don't want to overcome or erase, they went to belong. It will take months to integrate them, and nearly a year for the new dimensions to blend with the other seals in her matrix._

_Its a trickle at first, they push back against Inner, they don't belong here. She sneers and flares her chakra, Inner stops fighting, the fire explodes. It whispers with promises to devour everything that it deems unworthy. The fire digs its heat into her tenketsu, boiling her blood, but the heat is nothing compared to the lava of becoming whole with her Inner. She lets it explore, poking and prodding at her nodes, its agitation grows with every second; it can't find her weaknesses._

_The first of the wild chakra to touch her seal goes without struggle into the blood and ink. The fires and heat gutter as she coaxes it into submission, willing it to settle, to connect with the rest of the village. The last of the Uchiha chakras lash out, she nearly loses her grip, it was Sasuke's fighting against her._

_“Not this time you fucking traitor, not after what you did to Naruto.” Her teeth clench as her chakra frequency calls the tamed fires of the Uchiha clan. He is no match for his mother's chakra that rises to aid her._

_“Kura.”_

_“'M fine, Ino.” She mumbles as she falls into that honeyed grass that she loves way too much._

_“You and your damn fūinjutsu, I swear Forehead. What is so important that you have to seal every clan compound, the Hokage mountain, and every last street in the village?”_

_“I didn't mean to worry.” Her entire body is boneless and weightless as she's lifted into the air. She sighs and grips the purple-gray shirt as her eyes slide shut. Ino's huff is beautiful and gives the exhaustion room to spread._

_“I know you didn't, but what's so fucking important that you have to give yourself chakra exhaustion every time?” Despite the harshness in her tone, she knows its worry and care that makes the words harsher than intended._

_“The seal 'll help in 'nother invasion. Akasuki 'll come for Naruto 'meday.”_

_“Of course, I should have known it was for him. Its always for him.” Ino's voice was getting further and further away._

_“S'not just for him. Its for you, the other clans, and civilians too. No more orphans, not if I can 'elp it.”_  

* * *

_The door is mocking her with its peeling paint and lopsided number plate. She has half a mind to kick it down, but she doesn't. 'Why are we here?'_

_'Because he needs us.'_

_'He needs Sasuke as we've learned first hand that I am chopped liver as far as he's concerned.' She sighs and brings her hand up to knock for the thousandth time._

_Only to stop herself at the last second, her hand falling back to her side. She's been there in front of his door for an hour. With a growl she brings her hand up again and raps on it once. “Naruto, I will break your door in if you don't open up.”_

_“Go away! I don't want to talk about it.”_

_“I guess I'll be eating this ramen all by myself.”_

_“You do that, now go away.”_

_“Hard way it is.” She whispers as she raises her right foot and slams it into the door._

_The flimsy lock is no match for her. There's a muffled thud as the knob hits the stop on the wall. She smirks as she strides past the, still intact, door. It took her months of practice to get the amount of force just right so as not to shatter doors into splinters upon impact._

_“Sakura. Get. Out.” Clove and thunder wash over her._

_She exits the doorway, moving into the living room and hits a wall of darkness. The curtains are drawn, piles of clothes are scattered across the floor, and empty styrofoam cups clutter up the small table in front of the ratty orange and white couch. Naruto's blue eyes bore into her from somewhere in the shadows._

_“Get the fuck out of here!”_

_Her footstep are silent as she moves into the living room. She doesn't say anything to disturb the silence as she sets the scroll down. “As you wish. Its miso pork, your favorite.”_

_Her foot steps don't falter when she hears him sniffle. The flow of her chakra as she inscribes a few basic security seals onto his door is smooth. They spread rapidly as soon as it's shut, she doesn't hear him choking back sobs. She can feel his grief in the fluctuating chakras. 'I'm so sorry. Naruto. Jiraiya's alive, your mother is alive too, and I wish I could tell you that.'_

_She turns away from the door feeling like a monster. ' **Restraint Release: Chakra clone** '. When Inner is standing opposite her, she waves to his door. Wordlessly Inner nods._

* * *

Naruto stumbles away from the black expanse of her wall, Sasuke stares unseeing at the seal covered door. Inner heaves a sigh. They both jump a foot in the air and whirl around to face her. Their eyes go wide, Sasuke's nostrils flare, Naruto's eyes are filled with fire, and she sighs again.

His eyes cut through her. Every line of his body is taut, he shifts from foot to foot. She waits for him to ask. “How did you force them to stay away from us?”

“ _It was their decision to stay away-_

“-why should I believe you?” His accusation hits hard even when she was expecting it, it still robs the breath from her lungs.

She takes a step back only for him to snarl and leap forward. His fist passes through her, as does the rest of him, but he springs up from the ground. He swipes at her back, he flails his arms as he falls flat on his face. Another growl as he crouches on all fours and jumps into the air. He passes through her once more. Again and again, he attacks, with each failure he gets more and more desperate to land a hit, shouting even more accusations at her.

“Friends don't lie to each other.” A kick. “How could you keep my family from me?” A jab followed by another kick. “Why did I ever think you were my friend?” He rams his shoulder into her stomach. “I will never forgive you for this.” The roundhouse kick throws him off balance and he tumbles to the ground. He is back on his feet in seconds, a snarl twisting his lips. “I hate you!” She catches his wrist and wrenches his arm to the side, driving her knee into his gut.

A soft hiss escapes him as he doubles over. The crackling inferno licks across her skin as Sasuke shoves his hand through her back. His chakra fizzles out when she doesn't make a sound. Her body dissolves into the ground. Shadows form under his feet, her hand clamps around him as the rest of her grows rapidly. Sasuke's struggling ceases when she stops growing, holding him fifty feet above the ground. “ _Of course you'd pick his side._ ”

He sneers, chakra flooding his tenketsu and the familiar crackle tickles her palm as _**Chidori Nagashi**_ hits her. Tightening her fist until she hears bones popping, she hurls him at Naruto. She lets go of her form, shrinking to a normal size before landing next to them. They both scramble to get up and keep attacking her, but she's had enough.

 _“Look at you two, finally seeing eye to eye about something._ ”

The words bring them both up short, horror dawning on their faces, as the realization of what they'd done washes over them.

She breaths in and out for several long minutes before she can stand to look at them. She manages to look both of them in the eye for a few seconds and forces herself to turn away. “ _Hating my guts and wanting nothing more than to sever your bonds to me.”_

When neither of them speak, she strides to the black wall. “ _Well, I guess that settles that then._ ”

“Sakura-”

“-Inner Sakura-”

She ignores them as she steps into the darkness.

Naruto reaches the wall first, Sasuke close behind, they both grip her wrist and pull with everything they've got. She fights dirty, using chakra to grip the ground, and sends Sasuke's chakra pulsing back along her tenketsu. Naruto curses, but refuses to let go, Sasuke re-directs his own chakra away from him and Naruto.

White hot fury courses through her. They had no right to force her to stay with them and with a roar she spins, burying her fist into Naruto's whiskered cheek. Her eyes track his trajectory as she emerges the rest of the way from the wall and grasps Sasuke's arm. His eyes lock with hers, his sharingan is spinning as she launches him into the air. Him and Naruto crash into each other with enough force to break bones.

“ _How fucking dare you?! How dare you stand there and sling accusations around like you know anything about what I've done to make you happy! I've given up so much of myself waiting for this day. The day I would meet the one person in this world who would understand me, who is capable of loving all of me, the one person who will never be able to stare through me like I'm a ghost. Instead I get saddled with the two of y-you!_ ” Her voice cracks and the sob echos across the village. 

Naruto and Sasuke grow still in their motion, faces white, and for once they see her clearly; only for the blackness to reach out and devour her.

* * *

_The jutsu is a reflex at this point, the destination is instinct, but she forces herself to stop just before crossing the the threshold of Yamanaka Flowers. It felt wrong to go to Ino even though she'd be able to put a stop to her tears. With more strength than she knew, she turns away and leaps onto the rooftops._

_Its soothing, the rhythm of her muscles and chakra as she moves through the village. Night settles and its shadows shroud the streets below. From time to time she stops moving and takes stock of the condition of her seals. The matrix was finally starting to stabilize from the influx of Uchiha chakras, they'd be a big help with taking control of any wild flames and directing them away from civilians. She also stops at the fortified checkpoints to deposit more of her medical seals and to check if anyone has been helping themselves to the weapons stored there; the weapons were there for emergencies, like an invasion, and it was highly frowned upon to remove them from the checkpoints at any other time._

_With her self appointed tasks finished, she closes her eyes and puts more chakra into her legs before pushing off the roof she was on. The wind is cold as it tears through her hair. At the apex of her jump she opens her eyes and spins. Gravity grabs a hold of her once again and she dives into it. Her hands blur and as the signs come to an end, her body goes weightless. '_ _**Doton: Keijūgan** _ _'_

_She hasn't mastered the jutsu enough to use it in a fight, but for the purpose of slowing her descent to the Hokage mountain, it will do just fine. Her feet hover a few inches from the top of the first Hokage's head. A moment later and she lets the jutsu go, her chakra moves to her feet and grips the rock; anchoring her to Senju Hashirama's head._

_“I probably have the chakra control to re-create your wood release.” She whispers to him with the belief that his spirit is there watching over the village, that he can hear her._

_“A lot of people forget that you didn't have a kekkei genkai. That your wood release was the result of blood, sweat, and tears. Its why I did my report on you in the academy, you know. I gave it to Lee when he was recovering after Gaara crushed his arm and leg, it did wonders to his mood. It made me happy seeing him get his will of fire back after he finished reading it.” The wind snatches her words and carries them away._

_“I think it will be a long time before Naruto and Sasuke are happy again, but I'm trying Sir. I'm doing everything I can to help them. Even when I just want to give it up for a lost cause. It hurts so m-much.”_

_The hum of chakra, a chakra she's gotten to know with her seals spread across the village, pulses almost as if in response to her words. Rather than bring an end to the ache in her chest, it constricts the bands tighter; making the pain worse. Her eyes close against the sensation. “I don't want them to be my soulmates, but I know they are. Because fate is cruel. I-”_

_She flares her chakra to activate the seals, she picks up her confession once her chakra is a pleasant buzz in the air. “-_ _**Izanagi** _ _, a genjutsu so powerful that it can unmake reality. The only genjutsu our Inners can't shield us from. If I could jump back to the warring states era, I would murder the bastard Uchiha who created it. I made a seal or rather Ino happened during a trial and error session, and sent me back two years. After I got back to the present, I re-created it._

_I immediately informed your granddaughter of what transpired. She was hesitant to let me use the seal again, but she helped me investigate the limits. Turned out the seal won't work for anyone other than myself. I don't think she'll ever forgive me for not allowing her a chance to save Dan and Nawaki, or stop Orochimaru from being used by Danzō as a puppet. I also can't jump past the day I was born.”_

_Her laughter is bitter, so much power at her fingertips, yet it counts for nothing. She is grateful for the opportunities the seal grants her nor does she blame Ino for throwing off her brush strokes that day, but it does not make it hurt any less._

_“For so long I focused my training on matching Orochimaru in power to one day avenge my parents.” The sob catches in her throat.“after saving as many Uchiha as I could...I went back to the invasion. It wasn't shishou's soulmate who'd killed them. It was Shimura Danzō and his fucking root agents.”_

_Shocks of pain shoot up her knees from the impact with the stone. Tears an endless, ceaseless stream, body wrecking sobs, and a high pitched keening joins the howl of the wind. “F-Fucking Uchiha and their s-stupid fucking dōjutsu are the reason I can't bring them back. My parents deaths were made p-permanent because Danzō used_ _**Izanagi** _ _when he fought them.”_

_“I can't b-bring them back.” She repeats it over and over to the empty night air. “I had to watch them die and I couldn't do anything to stop it.”_

_“A-And the worst part, is I can't r-rip my heart out to stop caring about Sasuke and what he means to Naruto. I have to lie to them b-both.” The humming chakra smothers her senses, the honeyed grass is drowned out, she does not feel her approach._

_“I'm hurting Ino too. S-She-”_

_“-shush Kura.” Ino's voice freezes the blood in her veins, it does nothing to stop her cries._

_She curls in on herself trying to become the smallest ball that she can. It does nothing to deter Ino. Her chakra is gentle, she suspects that's a major reason why she loves it so much, as Ino picks her up._

_“I will decide when I'm being hurt and you are not hurting me. I care about what makes you happy and if its those two assholes being happy, then I am going to beat the shit out of them and make them happy.”_

_“Is it weird that I like it when you carry me a-around like this?”_

_“Weird is not the word I would use.” Ino says in that tone that sends shivers down her spine, the playfulness in Ino's chakra makes her wary. “Its super fucking gay that you like this, Forehead.”_

_“Oh please, you're practically a useless lesbian when you watch me stretch before training, Ino-pig.” She fires back, but tucks her head beneath Ino's chin and closes her eyes._

_“You have muscles, it would be criminal for me to not ogle you when you do your stretches in front of me and on purpose.”_

_“You can't prove anything.”_

_“That's not a firm denial.”_

_The levity brought on by Ino, fades away as they descend further and further down the stairs. Loathe as she is to do it, she pats Ino's shoulder, and a moment later Ino sets her down. She waits patiently for Ino to stop the jutsu._

_“Did you follow me?”_

_“Inner Forehead was worried when she couldn't sense you with me.” Ino says before holding out her hand._

_“Betrayed by my own mind.” She sighs, but takes Ino's hand and tugs her forward. “But seriously, it does feel like I'm giving you false hope and driving the kunai in deeper.”_

_“We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.”_

_“Only four more years to go.”_

_Ino squeezed her hand and smirks, “Soulmates or not, I'm still going to ogling you before training.”_

_She bursts into giggles and a moment later, Ino joins in. Her heart is lighter as she walks with her Snapdragon. Sakura isn't dumb, and she's not oblivious to the sheer amount of tension between them. It was driving her crazy and making her curse her stupid morals every single day; she can't even imagine what its doing to Ino._

_“Sometimes,” She hears the slight 'oh?' from Ino, to let her know she is listening, as they hit the bottom of the stairs and turn toward Raidō's. “I wish there wasn't such a thing as soulmates. I wouldn't have to wait for the biggest disappointment of my life before being free to love who I want to.”_

_“Kura...are...do...y-you?”_

_“Yeah.”_

_“Forehead.” Its awful to see Ino pull away from her, but she doesn't put up a fight._

_“Sorry.”_

_She refrains from slamming her fist into the nearest wall as Ino disappears in a flurry of leaves. The swell of grief crashes over her, ripping and tearing through her chest. Her body is in motion a second later, her chakra buzzing in her muscles as she runs for the nearest training grounds._

_The fence is little more than an annoyance as she hops it with ease. She dashes further into the dense forest, her senses open to their fullest, and a smile stretches across her face as she locates a den. The bear roars in challenge as it drags itself from the depths of the tree's roots._

_Its fur is sleek and dark as the night around her. It roars again as it stands on it hind legs, towering over her. She estimates its height at fifteen feet. Her seals flare with chakra, releasing her black gloves from their confines. Dark pools of brown watch her as she pulls the gloves on._

_The crack of her knuckles breaks the spell over the bear and it swipes at her. She hops over its arm, and back hands its other arm as it swings at her left side. The force of her strike launches the bear back into its den. Wood snaps and cracks in the bear's wake. She leaps after it, driving her left fist into its throat. The bear's struggles cease as its heart beat stops._

_Sakura looses a growl and snatches the dead bear's leg before hurling it out of the den. A dull thud reaches her ears. She climbs out of the den before throwing herself at the tree, fist out stretched. The wood gives way and she crashes through to the other side. Her fingers dig into the edges of the hole she made. She anchors her feet to the ground with chakra. The tree groans in protest as she heaves with all her might._

_Bark, splinters of sharp wood, and leaves rain down on her as she swings the tree at the others. There's a mighty crash and an echoing boom as more splinters fill the air. Two more bears enter the clearing she created, they don't stand a chance as she brings her improvised club around to bat them away._

_The tree is a stump by the time the sun is rising over the trees. Twelve bear carcasses are strewn throughout the area. Her breathing is labored and her muscles are screaming with the burn of exertion._

_She ignores the incessant push and pull of an ocean's tide, ignores the cloud of clove and cinnamon suffusing the air, and stumbles past the dead animals toward the rusting metal fragments; left untouched by the scavengers. Her left arm spasms with phantom pain as she reaches the base of the tree. With little to no thought about what has made this tree its home, she crawls underneath the giant root and collapses. Rolling onto her back she stares up at the purple-gray bark and fights back the urge to scream as her tears return with a vengeance._

* * *

_Her eyes snap open as she kicks the giant centipede off of her body. It takes a moment for the frantic beat of her heart to slow as the sluggish haze of sleep leaves her brain. She feels like a wrung out towel and positively reeks; sweat and blood are horrible smells when combined and given ample time to dry._

_She sits up slowly, bringing her knees to her chest and wraps her arms around them. Her gazes wonders from the torn scrap of bright orange to the discarded buckle from Sasuke's arm guard, before landing on her long-lost genin medical kit. Over the years she came back and held another vigil over the last remnants of team 7's first and last chūnin exam._

_It was here, beneath this tree that she threw her lot in with Naruto and Sasuke. She'd killed for them, protected them, and kept them alive to see tomorrow or so she'd thought. “I wasn't good enough for them and when I was, they never saw it.”_

_Sakura remains in the forest of Death for two days before emerging from within, several more dens of bears, a few nests of flesh eating centipedes, and a giant tiger help her lessen the weight of crushing despair pressing down on her shoulders. She isn't surprised to see Inner waiting for her at the fence. The lava lingers for a couple of minutes, but the sensations aren't as sharp as when she was younger._

_'How is he?'_

_'He left for sage training with the frogs this morning, he was a lot better than he was when we visited him. I saw him off and Shika asked if we could help him figure out what Jiraiya's message means. Shizune wants us to come by to help with the autopsy when we have some time and Ino's assisting her dad with the Ame nin Jiraiya captured.'_

_'First stop, Raidō's and then we will go see Shikamaru.' She says, shoving back the mess of emotions plaguing her mind and focuses on surviving the next four years; hoping against all the odds that she won't be saddled with Naruto and Sasuke when the Dreaming comes._

* * *

“I d-didn't...that wasn't...we fucked up Sasu.”

“This is on her just as much as its on us.” His tone was harsh, but his senses were open and searching for her.

“Oh grow up, asshole. She risked her life and our friendship to save our moms. Not to mention a good portion of your clan too and your brother.” Naruto's shoulders sag as he trudges past Sasuke and stares into the forest of Death. “I just wish I hadn't been so dense and too stupid to see through her lies and smiles. Do you think she'll ever forgive us?”

“Come on, dobe, you know she can't stay mad at you. As for me on the other hand...” He shrugs as he trails off, looking past the fence and to the forest beyond it.

Naruto leans into his shoulder and gently grabs his hand and entwines their fingers. A small smile is sent his way and he squeezes the hand he's holding, reassuring his bastard that he's there to support him. Its several long minutes before he speaks.

“One of my clan's advanced jutsu is the reason her parents are dead and can't be saved. She will never forgive me for that.”

“Now whose being the idiot.” He shakes his head at Sasuke when those dark eyes bore into the side of his head. “Unlike you, the bastard who wanted to take your anger out on Konoha as a whole for massacring your clan, Sakura isn't gunning for the Uchiha or calling for blood. If there is one thing I have come to understand about her,” He waves to the frozen images cluttering up Sakura's wall, “she chooses to be the better person. Even at great personal cost to herself.”

* * *

' _ **Restraint Release: Chakra clone**_ _' When Shika's head snapped up from the deciphered message to glare at her, she sighed before rising from her seat. “I need some air and Shizune asked me to help out with the autopsy. Later Shikamaru.”_

_'Inner go watch over shishou. I'm going to practice moving the village's chakra through my seals.'_

_'Are you sure that's a good idea, Ino's still...'_

_She sighs again, resisting the urge to snarl and punch something. With considerable effort she takes a few deep breaths before turning to face Inner. “No, but she knows how important it is for me to work with the village's chakras to master my seal.”_

_'Just be careful. There's something in the air today.'_

_She nods and hands over the scroll with her ANBU gear. “Its the same feeling as the morning of the 3_ _rd_ _exam, I haven't forgotten.”_

_The second her dad's mask is in place, she switches Inner with the ratty red couch pillow in the Hokage's office. With a trickle of chakra the pillow is sealed away and she leaps onto the nearest rooftop. Her path meanders as she's forced to change her course mid-jump to avoid harried Genin corp messengers and the odd chūnin rushing from one end of the village to another._

_She lands in the center of her sealing matrix with an irritated huff, a jōnin nearly knocked her off of a roof. Where they then proceeded to lecture her about not lingering before asking for her jōnin-sensei's name. The look on his face when she flashed them her identification card as both a med-nin and a jōnin was priceless._

_“Fucking asshole.” Shaking her head and letting her irritation go, she spies Ino, who shouldn't still be at home, lounging on one of the chairs on the back porch._

_“Forehead.” The word is razor sharp as it cuts into her._

_“I'm here to practice.” She says softly, they had rules for when either of them crossed that line. Sakura knows that she's pushing Ino's boundaries, but she see's the tension in blue-green soften at her next words, “I can leave and come back after you've left for T &I.” _

_“The ivy is wilting.” Ino's statement sends the bottom of her stomach to her feet._

_“Oh good, its not just me.”_

_“I-” She sees the struggle of emotions and feels the honeyed grass become warm and zingy once more.“you caught me off guard Friday night, but when I saw the ivy in the shape is was in this morning, I didn't want to leave without seeing you today. Stay safe, okay?”_

_“Of course. I'll keep an eye on everyone else too.” Its all she can say without upsetting Ino anymore than she already has._

_“Activate the security seals when you leave.”_

_As Ino vanishes in a flurry of leaves, she sits down and loses herself in the village's chakra. Her seal lit up and as her chakra connected with the village, her awareness of her surroundings faded away. The hum of the trees, the rustle of leaves, the blazing heat of summer, the chill of winter, the smell of spring rains, and the colors of autumn flooded her senses._

_“Alright,” She focused on the Nara forest, it was closest to the Hokage mountain, and pulled in just enough chakra through the seal to create a chakra clone. She held the chakra at the Nara forest before sending it along her relay seals to the mountain._

_A whole minute passed before she felt a rush of memories filter back to her through the second clone of Inner and the seal itself. The grin was so wide it hurt, she'd created a chakra clone almost entirely of the village's chakra; the chill of separation was muted. She almost broke into maniacal laughter, but didn't want to break her own concentration._

_'No one will ever again destroy our home like Orochimaru's invasion did. Not with this seal.'_

_'Don't get ahead of yourself, Saku. You still haven't tried performing any major elemental jutsu through it yet.' Inner's admonishment did nothing to hamper the rush of exhilaration that she felt._

_'Doesn't matter, I can practically pop up anywhere in the village with **Kawarimi** or **Shunshin** and I only have to expend a minor bit of my own chakra to do it. I'll be able to protect civilians, genin corp members, and genin during an invasion. Once I get a handle on the major elemental jutsu, I'll be able to control the damage to structures and re-direct attacks on the-'_

_The ground rumbles as thick clouds of black smoke rise through the air. She drags her hands along the kanji nearest her as more images from her clone on the mountain reach her. Once she's got a lock on the areas she gathers the chakra she'll need and races through familiar signs as three more chakra clones emerge from the relays of her seal_. ' _ **Inner Control: Devil's playground**_ _' Her blood seal flares along her hands, '_ _ **Kuchiyose**_ _'. A piece of Shinobu breaks through the earth on the outside of her seal._

_“Akasuki is attacking the village, help Daichi with damage control and protecting the civilians. I have chakra clones en route to reinforce the checkpoints and provide assistance as needed. I'll be switching in and out with them. Devour any enemies you find.”_

_“I knew I picked you as my summoner for a reason.”_

* * *

_Her body was awash in pain as her seals fracture from the oppressive weight of familiar chakra. Waves crashing on white sands, the cry of gulls overhead, and the ashes falling like snow to the ground. The increasing amounts of pressure and chakra in the air frays the edges of her seals. She pushes more chakra through the farthest relay and latches_   _onto the first and only record of her family's Kekkei Genkai._

_Sakura doesn't even think about her blood seal as she drags the kunai down her arm and splashes the blood upon the massive scroll, the instant it appears within the center of her sealing matrix. Inner races through the signs and gathers their chakra and the village's chakra channeled from her sealing matrix. ' **Restraint's Release** '. _

_“ **Shinra Tensei**.” _

_“Little Kura?” Inner Kizashi's voice echos in her ears._

_“D-Don't call me that,” She swallows over the lump in her throat as best as she can and tries to hold her tears back, there isn't time. “I'm not so little a-any more.”_

_“What is the meaning of this?” This Inner's tone is harsher than any she'd ever heard._

_From the corner of her eye she sees Inner Sakura flinch and practically dive behind her. Inner Kizashi bristles and puts himself in between her and the newcomer. Another Inner steps up and nods to the harsh Inner._

_“I would like to know as well,” They sneer at her, ignoring Inner Kizashi. “what this Restraint thinks she is doing by summoning us from the repository?”_

_“Saving my village and the civilians I'm sworn to protect as a jōnin of Konoha.” She growls rising from her seat, but remaining within the center of her sealing matrix._

_“You dare to to waste our precious and valuable chakras for the very village that betrayed Uzushio?!”_

_“Back off Inner Akumei, Inner Kohaku, your releases aren't needed nor are being called on. We just need you to get the innocents out of the buildings before they are crushed to death.” Inner is bleeding cinnamon and clove, drowning out the burnt sugar._

_“Than whose do you dare to eradicate from the repository?” Inner Kohaku snarls._

_“Mine.”_

_Inner Akumei's whole stance softens immeasurably as she moves to place her hand upon her brother's shoulder. “Brother, she means to give up her last connection to her sire.”_

_“What is the nature of your Release?” Inner Kohaku frowns as his eyes shift from her to Inner Kizashi._

_“My yin chakra slows down time. One one trillionth of a second passes, stretching a few seconds into minutes, or a minute into fifteen.”_

_“What do you wish for from the repository, young Restraint?”_

_The eyes of over a thousand Inners swivel to focus on her and Inner Sakura, with a heavy heart, pale jade shift to the slowly collapsing buildings around her. Her breath is shaking with every exhale. A single tear rolls down her face. “Save the civilians and place Katsuyu onto any ninja you come across. I'll be able to provide you with yin chakra to preserve your impressions in the repository until Inner Kizashi's is eroded entirely.”_

_“It shall be done.”_

_She sits in the center of her seals, once she's settled again and the grief isn't threatening to overwhelm her; she bids Inner Kizashi to step into the circle. He is silent as he hovers over her. She keeps her attention on the fluctuating chakras and diverts the right amount to whichever Inner has need of it. Daichi and Shinobu are aiding in the process whenever they can._

_The seconds pass in agonizing slowness. She stifles the snort at the thought, that was kind of the whole point of releasing the repository. Its a whole minute, outside of their bubble, before Inner Kizashi addresses her._

“ _Little Kura,” She can't push back the sob as it catches in her throat as he moves closer. “from what I can see of the matrix you got here, its the one you started after you finished your first storage scroll.” He kneels next to her and wraps his arms around her. She wants to give in, she wants to break apart knowing he'll be there to pick up the pieces, but she can not. “I know that your choice is tearing you apart, but I'm so proud of you for making it.” Her hand grips his arm when he moves to pull away. “I love you and I know your mom does too.”_

_The soft pattering of rain on a metal roof, the sharp biting cold of a winter's wind, and the smell of wet wood fades away. Nothing, but empty air greets her as time speeds up. A scream lodges in her throat as Daichi's chakra pulls her underground, the rumble from Pein's attack follows them down._

* * *

_The spike of black pierces the ground, shifting aside several tons of stone, she coughs violently as she crawls free of her construct. She stares at the rubble around her. Daichi and Shinobu hover above her, their chakras restless and weary, even Inner is silent at the devastation. “Daichi where is Pein?”_

_“At the point of impact.”_

_“Summoner surely, you are not thinking about...”_

_The piece of Shinobu trails off as she pins her in place with a stare. “I'd like to see how this god fairs against god-like chakra control. Will you fight with me?”_

_Neither slug or lizard answered her as they sunk back into the ground and settled into her chakra construct. The seals along her arms flared as her dad's armor plates and the weapon her mom helped her make popped into existence. A slight tremor in her hands made buckling the armor into place a little difficult, but she persisted. '_ _**Chakra Clone** _ _'_

_She gasped as her chakra levels dropped alarmingly, she'd never created two chakra intensive constructs, with out the help from her seal, nor maintained them both at the same time before. Her seals flared again as her mom's ANBU gear clattered to the ground around them. “Put that on and go find our team, they need to start pulling shinobi from the debris. I am going to find shishou, she'll be weakened from the strain of protecting everyone from Pein.”_

_“Be careful, Saku.”_

_“I will.”_

_Fragmented and frayed as it was her seal's main components had held up to Pein's attack. She inhaled as she cast about for her shishou's chakra, she flared bits of her seal near any severely wounded shinobi she could sense buried under the rubble for Daichi and Shinobu to evacuate. Despite the lengths she went to, there were still hundreds who had died in the wake of Pein's jutsu. She pushed the anger aside as she located Tsunade. The village's chakra flooded the seal, carrying her to Tsunade's side._

* * *

_“What...?”_

_Her eyes fall to Tsunade and the rage bursts past her control upon seeing her brought so low. Dirt and blood cover her face, a steady line of it dripping down her chin. The only relief to Sakura is Tsunade's Yin seal hasn't vanished completely._

_“You fucking monster!” Tsunade roars as she pushes herself to her feet._

_She pulses her chakra as she goes to stand with Tsunade, she reaches out to the seals lining the haori. Other than extreme chakra exhaustion, Tsunade's other injuries are minor and don't take her long to close them up. Her attention stays glued to Pein as he watches them._

_“I will never forgive you.”_

_“You understand a little of what true pain is now,” His eyes shift from Tsunade to her, going back and forth until, “but there's still more pain I can teach you.”_

_Five more of him fall out of the sky. One by one they stand, creating a wall of black and red, she swears to kill every last one of them if its the last thing she does. 'Inner return to me now.'_

_Its worse than every other time before, she's nearly sent to her knees as the lava settles over her brain, but the pain is a welcome one; its familiar. ' **Chakra cloak** '. The seals erupt along every groove in the wood as a pervasive chill blankets the air surrounding the tentacles, black fog seeps out from its joints shrouding it from observation. Her chakra levels drop even further and she's forced to give up maintaining her underground construct aiding Daichi and Shinobu. ' **Inner Control: Rise of the Kraken** ' _

_The puppet collapses to the ground at the same time one of the Pein's rushes forward. Its the same mechanical monstrosity that attacked Chōji earlier. She doesn't move as Tsunade's fist smashes into it's face and shatters it's body into a thousand pieces._

_The kraken comes alive and expands, the grooves coming apart easily as it grows to overshadow the creature rushing at them. The wood along its tentacles sharpens, ripping and tearing into muscles and bone. The creature keens an awful high pitched sound, falling silent and still moments later. Two more summons burst forward, aiming for the wooden pieces, she smirks as the kraken finishes burrowing into the dead summon and she laughs when the Pein who summoned them stares wide eyed as her puppet explodes. Black shrapnel flies with pinpoint accuracy at the two other summons and upon contact with their chakra, explodes._

_As pieces of the summons rain down on the Pein responsible, she appears behind them and slashes her tantō. Before that Pein's head hits the ground her roundhouse kick sends another one flying back. He skids along the ground for several feet. The Pein is launched into the air with a pillar of rock, she **shunshin** 's over to the dead summon and grips one of the kraken's tentacles and flings it toward the airborne Pein. The kraken is fully reformed by the time it slams into Pein, it's sharp beak tearing its head off and flinging the body away from itself. _

_“Enough.” Pein steps forward only to stumble when a tremor rocks the ground. His body jerks forward as the ground shatters from Tsunade's punch and those ringed eyes track the Pein that falls into Shinobu's pool of acid. The Pein lands on the surface, face impassive as their hands race through signs. They falter when Shinobu snags their foot and drags them under._

_She swallows a scream when the black chakra sensor is shoved through her shoulder. The wood of her puppet rains down on her and the Pein behind her. Her chakra slows to a crawl as Pein's ravages her network. Their hand flies from their arm and the Pein's head follows a second later._

_“What...how did you defeat the human path so easily?”_

_“No Yamanaka can control me.” She hisses as she pulls the black chakra sensor out of her shoulder and chucks it on the ground. Her left hand lights up with medical chakra. “If the strongest heir to their clan couldn't do it, what the fuck makes you think you ever could, Uzumaki Nagato?”_

“ _**Banshō Ten'in** _ _.”_

 _'_   **** _ **Doton: Kajūgan**_ _' The smirk dies on her face as Pein's jutsu pulls Tsunade forward with alarming speed, she flares her chakra. 'I'm sorry Kushina, Mikoto, I have to break my promise._ _**Kawarimi** _ _'_

_Inner abandons the puppet's body and slams into Tsunade, transferring the effect of Saku's jutsu to her before switching their shishou out of the crater through the seal. Pein's face remains impassive as her body slides down the length of the chakra sensor impaling her abdomen. She embraces the despair, the hopelessness, the yawning void opening up in her chest._

_'I tried my best to stay alive for you.'_ _She flashes Pein a wide grin, her tears flowing freely for the soulmate she'll never get to meet, her killing intent is an oppressive weight in the air around them as her open palm hits his chest, the seals on her gloves light up, “See ya in hell, motherfucker.”_

* * *

  _ **Jutsu and Chakra Reference Lists**_

* * *

  ** _Banshō Ten'in_** : Universal pull - the user pulls matter to them at will

 _ **Shinra Tensei:**_  Almighty push – the user creates a repulsive force that pushes everything in the vicinity away.

 _ **Inner control:** **Rise of the Kraken**_. The inner is released through the chakra cloak and in habits the hollow shell of chakra reinforced wood. Their restraint directs and controls the puppet's physical body, but allows their Inner to use the various weapons, seals, and traps contained within the puppet at their discretion to disable or capture their enemies.

 ** _Inner Control:_ _Devil's Playground_** \- Creates an underground chakra construct that allows the restraint to control the above and below ground terrain of the surrounding area. The size of the construct and ease of control depends on the size of the restraint's chakra reserves and their mastery of earth chakra.

 ** _Kawarimi_** – substitution

 ** _Shunshin_** – Body Flicker a ninja can move short to long distances at an almost untraceable speed.

 ** _Kuchiyose;_** Summoning - a ninja can summon a contracted animal from another dimension or a creature, to help them fight.

 _ **Doton:**_ _ **Keijūgan:**_ earth release - light-weight rock. The user reduces their gravity making themselves lighter. 

 _**Doton:** _ _**Kajūgan:**_ earth release - added-weight rock. The user increases their gravity or their opponents, making them heavier and less mobile. 

 

The Inner Repository of the Haruno clan is a storage scroll and the largest impression seal that contains a copy of an Inner of every member of the Haruno clan to develop the Kekkei Genkai. The repository is held by the direct descendants of Haruno Akumei and Kohaku, every year the clan reports any members who've developed the bloodline and travels to the main branch to receive training or leave an impression of their Inner within the repository. Like a summon contract, an Inner can be summoned from within it, however, should the restraint require the Inner's use of their Restraint's release it will erode the Inner's impression and erase them from the repository forever. Inner Akumei and Inner Kohaku have the final say over whether or not an Inner's Restraint's release is to be lost from the repository. In the event that no release is called upon, the released Inners can aid the Restraint in control of the repository with other tasks, so long as they provide the necessary yin chakra to preserve their impressions within the repository.

 _**Restraint Release: Chakra Clone** _  
The Restraint uses an abundance of yin chakra, ¾ or ½ of their total chakra, to create a clone for their Inner to inhabit. The Inner will only return to their Restraint when their chakra pool runs out or they physically rejoin with their Restraint's chakra. The clone can receive additional yin chakra from their Restraint or an infusion of yin chakra from another person; so long as the person matches their chakra frequency to the Restraint's. Yin chakra has to come directly from their Restraint's or a person's natural reserves of chakra, any chakra from a soldier pill will be too disruptive for the Inner to mold. The Inner and Restraint can communicate, see, and hear what the other one does in real time when they channel Yang and Yin chakra respectively.

 _ **Restraint Release: Chakra Cloak**_  
Like a Bijū cloak the Inner is manifested over their Restraint's skin. Usually in the form of bandages, tethered to existing armor plates, as extra armor plates, a haori, or a faint outline of black chakra. However, using yang chakra to balance out their Inner's yin chakra, the cloak is not physically detrimental to the Restraint. In this state the Inner can emerge from any point of their Restraint's body to assist in close combat, unleash their Inner Control with greater ease, or any number of jutsu if their Restraint is at a disadvantage; such as elemental jutsu or mimic another jutsu with a chakra construct. Elemental jutsu performed with the cloak active is infused with a portion of the Restraint's Inner, allowing total control of the jutsu and element its comprised of as the an extension of the Restraint's will. [Think, Shukaku's sand]  
The Chakra Cloak doesn't need a set amount of chakra to activate. However, each second with their Inner manifested as the cloak, all mental and emotional pain experienced during battle is amplified ten fold when the Cloak is deactivated; killing intent, genjutsu or emotional upheaval, fear, anger, etc.

* * *

Kurama – Clove and cinnamon

Kizashi – soft rain, biting cold winds, and wet wood.

Naruto – an ocean. Killing intent, a thunderstorm.

Ino – cut grass, uncut wild grass, and honey.

Nagato - Waves crashing on white sands, the cry of gulls overhead, and the ashes falling like snow to the ground, like Uzushio itself. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Friendly reminder that Sakura is alive. 
> 
> Soulmate AU's are fantastic and often silly, fluffy, and tooth rottingly cute affairs. Thought they can, and some are, be a lot darker and angst ridden pieces of pure misery. Nor do they go too in depth with the people who hate/resent/wish otherwise that there wasn't such a thing as soulmates as evidenced with Ino and Sakura. 
> 
> Sakura's confession hurt Ino deeply for a couple reasons, one Ino knows how hard Sakura works to stay strong to her morals about not getting romantically involved with anyone until after the dreaming. Ino also respects it and thinks its super fucking romantic, she's also holding out hope that her own soulmate views it the same way as Sakura does. Two both Ino and Sakura aren't stupid and know that she's going to be stuck with the two oblivious idiots. Three, Ino wasn't ever expecting that Sakura felt the same way, a tip of the hat to the 'straight girl crush' but Ino does know that Sakura is pansexual. Ino left to prevent both herself and Sakura from crossing the line and doing something to irreparably harm their friendship going forward. 
> 
> Pein's invasion...I am really, really, really fucking annoyed with this shit. First off, you do not sideline the Hokage, but of course its Tsunade and she's just a puny wimins that needs protecting from the big bad Akasuki leader. Fuck. That. Shit. So you bet your ass I am going to have Sakura and Tsunade kick Pein's ass. BECAUSE WHY THE FUCK NOT?!!! ASDFGHJKL;! Its not unreasonable to have a less weakened Tsunade and a royally pissed off Sakura, also grieving the loss of her dad's Inner, murder the fuck out of Nagato's corpse puppets. Thought at the last second the Deva path pushed himself away from the explosion. [Nagato can't resurrect everyone if the Deva path was obliterated so...also he has to contain Naruto in nine-tails mode...] Why can't Sakura be self-sacrificing and protect her shishou from a mass murdering fuck bag? 
> 
> HOWEVER that is not to say that I took away all the glory from Naruto nor would I deny him the chance to meet his dad because I can plan ahead and make it work unlike Kishi; who really has no clue about what he is doing. 
> 
> I apologize to any Hinata fans out there, but that love confession come out of fucking nowhere. At least from Naruto's end of it and his immediate explosion into six-tails transformation was a load of bullshit. It would have been far more believable if Sakura had taken Hinata's place. Because we know Naruto cares for her, therefore, Naruto's reaction would have made way more sense if Sakura had been 'killed' by Pein in front of him. There was weight, impact, and at least a mutual emotional connection between Naruto and Sakura that we, the readers/watchers, saw throughout the story thus far. Though that's not to say that Hinata isn't still a BAMF in my fic...she's agent Kraken on Sakura's ANBU squad.
> 
> Now I know what you're thinking, why wasn't Naruto already there when Pein leveled the village...for the simple fact that Kōsuke wasn't murdered by Danzō. Because Inner Sakura was there to heal him once Danzō had stabbed him and left. As well as the fact that Kurama knew what was happening through Inner Sakura and was making Naruto's sage training more difficult. [Kurama has grown to respect Sakura as she explained what was going on and how she was going to save the siblings she couldn't get to in time. And she's always treated him with respect and is trying to help him protect his family.] 
> 
> Yeah...I told you guys Haruno Mebuki came from Wind country and her clan helped create Suna's puppet master corps. So yeah Sakura's mom helped her make a puppet during the month long training hiatus before the 3rd stage of the chūnin exams. I do love the Kraken mythos and great white sharks, that's why Sakura has a squid for a puppet and yeah Inner's inside it pulling the strings. 
> 
> To keep things straight, the first path, the Asura path, that dies is the weird mechanical one that fires rockets; its smashed to bits by Tsunade. The animal path is beheaded by Sakura after her puppet kills its summons. That Pein that Sakura kicks is the one that you can't used ninjutsu against, the Preta path, which was a distraction so Tsunade could target the Pein, the Naraka path, that could heal/reconstruct the others. The human path...well like Sakura said, if Ino couldn't control her, what makes Nagato think he ever could. All that was left was the Deva path, Yahiko's corpse, and as for Sakura's oversight with protecting herself from its jutsu, she's trying not to break apart while also knowing that one fuck up in the fight could get her killed and she, unlike Naruto, Sasuke, or Kakashi, has faith in Tsunade to be able to handle herself; cause she's the fucking Hokage. 
> 
> Also yes, those seals on her gloves are, in fact, a suicide jutsu; cause if you take her down, she is going to take you with her.


End file.
